All Alone with an Enemy
by DamonSalvatoreLuver
Summary: Tanya Mai knows what its like to walk the world a lonely shadow. Her brothers, Stefan and Damon, are no help, and her fury towards Elena Gilbert isn't really on her agenda either. But, even as a shadow, she's a diamond in the rough, and can prove she can do more than sit in the corner and watch...Set after The Struggle
1. Chapter 1

~The heavy Fell's Church wind made the trees shake and rattle their branches against one another. Rain slammed down onto the earth in large buckets, deepening puddles and soaking the rocks and shrubs. Little critters scampered in all directions, heading for cover from the pouring rain. The sky was pitch black with rolling clouds and booming thunder, lightening crashing in the atmosphere and streaking the sky with white and gold. Everything was dark and hidden like a secret, waiting to be discovered again. The ground drank up the ice cold liquid of the rain, quenching it's thirst from the recent summer; though summer hadn't been around since August. And it was November.

Wrench sat among the highest of branches in a tall pine tree, hood falling in front of her eyes and shielding her hair from the wet bark of the tree. She lounged comfortably, one leg dangling off the edge like a rag doll's; the other bent at the knee and sitting on the branch. Both hands folded over her lap, and she bent her Italian featured face backward and upward, eyes shut. She didn't seem to mind the nip of the cold air; she liked the feel of the rain slapping against her forehead, loving the cold wetness. She even sat in trees for the hell of it, dozing and watching the world spin by slowly. She didn't have a care in the universe when she went out for a stroll. She loved it. It was her favorite pass time.

Wrench swung her neck around in a circle, hearing the little crackle of popping in her neck bone. Then snapped it violently to the side, popping it harder. It used to be strange to her, watching all her guy friends at Dan's Auto & Repair Shop do it effortlessly, and practiced it herself on her free time. Now it was easy doing it. She used to be so fragile and innocent, having nothing to do but gentle arts. She'd scrunched up her face whenever she saw a man acting so childish and idiotic; pretending she was the more decent person. Wrench was now a rebel, playing in the dirt like the men, getting grease smeared all over her face and hands. A down and dirty girl she called herself.

But she was still stoic and sometimes emotionless because of her history, and she had a nasty habit of snapping and acting without thinking too brightly; even the boys feared her. Her opposite personality seldom otherwise. She was a sweet and wise child, being of only nineteen with long black curly hair and pale goddess-like features, like high cheekbones and a long lean body. People might have thought of her as an Italian beauty, being brought up as a noble in her family. Though she hadn't seen her family in years, she wasn't planning on seeing them again anytime soon. Even as old as she was, someone would've thought she was a simple girl trying to find her place in the world. No. That was a long time ago when the last person thought of that.

Wrench was a five hundred year old vampire with a terrible social history. She was never used to people; never understood why they pushed her out of the crowd; never knew why they only used her for their greedy deeds; never got used to the idea that no boy or man will ever love her.

Wrench shut her eyes tighter, trying not to cry. Since the day she was born as a human, even her father and brothers treated her as though she were a mere shadow. So Wrench cloaked herself from all other beings, hiding all her secrets and feelings to herself. No one ever tried to connect themselves to her, so she revelled in her own little silence and secret world of lonliness.

Wrench switched positions and linked her fingers behind her neck, swinging her leg back and forward absently. She waffed at the air, and smiled when a gust of wind made a few stray pieces of curly hair swing around her face, tickling her nose and cheeks.

A strange predatory scent suddenly tainted the musky air. Wrench's eyes flew open.

She frowned; looking in front of her, she sniffing the contaminated air with a sharp nose and quick senses, trying to find where the scent came from. And tried to identify it. It was something of an old scent to her. It ticked something inside her. The scent was mixed with something else; almost human.

_How curious, _Wrench though, sitting in a straight back position, ears open and alert. Her eyes darted this way and that, scanning the black evening with her sharp and skilled sight. Nothing unusual or freaky.

Wrench gave up trying to name the scent, and flipped off the branch, landing lightly on her heels, not making the slightest sound with her boots. Her hood slapped her neck when she landed, and adjusted back it over her head. Making her way over fallen tree limbs and around shrubbery, she began to follow the scent.

It didn't take her long to hit old Wickery Bridge. Or, what was left of it.

The bridge had collapsed into the water, and splinters of old oak surrounded the water's rocks and ferns. Some of what was left of the bridge stuck out dangerously and looked like stakes stuck in the ground. But what was stranger, was that an old pick up truck sat in the water, lights on, motor running. Wrench cocked her head to the side, gazing at the car in the water, right under where the bridge should have been.

"Now that is just weird," Wrench said out loud. The scent was beckoning her to the other side of the river. Her voice sounded rough and croaked, but sometimes people stared at ehr when she spoke, which was a bit annoying.

A loud scream made Wrench's attention shift up toward a group of weeping willows. A cry of anger.

Two figures were brawling with each other. One silhouette had dark hair that resembled sea waves in the wind, and his arm was bent at a strange angle. She subconsciously knew his eyes were as green as leaves in the summer. The other figure had a cap of dark hair that looked soft like doe pelt, and he looked smaller than the other one. Wrench knew his eyes were black as the night sky between stars.

Wrench bounded over the river's running water, landing so feathery and light on the other side that she didn't even hear it. Not even the rocks moved under her boots. Wrench jogged silently and carefully over to the scene, slipping her nimble body between a pair of dark thorn bushes, watching the rumble with fascination.

_I wonder who will win, _she thought as the wavy haired one punched the other quite hard in the jaw, then threw him against an old oak.

Another figure stepped into the clearing. A female in an old eighteenth century dress with blond hair and blue eyes.

Wait...that isn't Katherine is it? Wrench pulled back her pale lips and hissed to herself. Katherine, the vampire that changed her. Wrench hated Katherine. Katherine had caught the attention of her two older brothers, Stefan and Damon, and even she changed them, wanting to love them both instead of loving one. She committed suicide after Wrench's brothers said she needed to pick one brother. And Wrench's brothers killed each other because of that. But because of her selfishness and pouty little slef, her brothers now didn't even know sheas a vampire.

_Because my brothers are so ignorant and self-centered, _Wrench thought bitterly. _But wait...I killed myself because I didn't know if I was a vampire or not. I just didn't want to live anymore. And now look where I am._

The female seemed to have the strength to pry the strangling fingers of the wavy haired one off the dark haired one, and she threw her weight to the side, taking the captured hand with her. The wavy haired one flew away from the one on the ground.

Something else ticked inside Wrench again. They looked so...familiar. Like...she knew them from somewhere. The dark haired one rose from the ground, and walked over to grip the chin of the female. Wrench gasped, knowing what he was doing.

_They're vampires, _Wrench thought. _All three of them. That's what the scent was. They're a bit like human, but they're predators as well._

Wrench couldn't get what they were saying, so she stayed hidden for a long time. Until her mind started giving her names. Names she never wanted to hear again.

_Stefan is the green eyed one. Damon is the black eyed one. And isn't that...Elena Gilbert from Robert E. Lee High?_

Wrench stepped back, and a twig snapped under her. Damon looked in her direction. Wrench froze until every muscle was coiled and ready to spring.

"Hey!" Damon shouted, walking forward a little. "Who's there?" Wrench gulped.

Damon started for her hiding place. Twirling on her heel, Wrench dashed for the nearest tree, and swung up into it, doing a mid air flip, and landed onto the tree's neighboring tree. Flipping off that tree, she sprinted hard and fast. She heard Damon's footsteps close behind her, and, picking up speed, she felt her bones crunch and twist, hands hooked into paws, a tail growing at the end of her tail bone.

A great black leopard sprinted in the direction of Dan's Auto & Repair Shop, non stop for the next five miles. She held up barriers in her mind, keeping any Power away from her head, and ran harder. Rabbits and squirrels scampered away from the beast, fearful her long teeth and fast reflexes.

The leopard stopped where a wooden fence separated the trees and shrubs from the grounds of the workshop, keeping out any animals that liked the scent of human flesh. The leopard stood on its hind legs, and it's claws became hands; legs became long and elegant; bones twisting again.

Wrench bounced over the fence, running like lightening before any of the boys saw her. Wrench climbed the long stairway to the series of apartments open for any of the boys to rent out if they worked here. Wrench walked to the last door on the right, and opened it, stripping off her wet clothes when inside. She was done with her shower when a tough knock on the door made Wrench open her bathroom door slightly.

"Come in!" she yelled, and a tanned face with dark green eyes and dark brown hair popped in. Zach McCall smiled.

"Are you planning on missing poker night?" he teased. Wrench laughed.

"Naw. I'm coming. Just got back," she answered.

"From where?"

"Non of your business, thank you very much."

Zack rolled his eyes, and smirked. "Ok. But I think your hiding something." He chuckled.

She looked at him. "If I was hiding anything, I'll betcha you'll know by the end of today."

Zack shook his head. Then shut the door after saying, "I'll see ya down stairs."

Wrench dressed quickly, throwing on a pair of cotton sweat pants and long sleeved grey shirt with running shoes. She practically jumped off the stairs and sprinted to the meeting room, pulling her hair up in a really tight ponytail, where poker night was being held. She peeked in. All the chairs had been pushed up around a round table decorated with food and water. A deck of cards stood behind the huge pile of chips, and real money had been placed on the table.

Wrench saw Zane and Jack Borington smile widely and strode up to wrap an arm around her shoulder. Zane's long hair usually swept his shoulders, but he always kept it up in a ponytail at the back of his neck. His brown face complimented his grey eyes, smiling a crooked yet white toothed smile. He wore a loose black shirt, but it hugged his stomach, and his six-pack poked out a little bit. Jack, his younger brother, had dark brown hair that had wisps of it at the back of his neck and in his blue eyes. He was as muscular as his bog brother.

Zane spoke. "We thought you weren't going to make it, Tanya." He used Wrench's real name, and Wrench smiled, suddenly feeling amused by his statement.

She acted baffled, mouth hanging open. "Me? Miss poker night? You boys must be on crack," she teased, throwing her hand at them.

The Lorel twins came through the door quite loudly, making everyone in the room turn around. Blake had a white face with milky brown eyes and coal black hair. Jake, his identical twin, had green eyes instead of brown. Both boys had square jaws and white teeth and wide smiles. Blake was straight; Jake was gay.

Jake skipped up-literally-and hugged Wrench tenderly, while Blake slapped her back. He looked her over as if buying a horse. "Did you just get up from a nap? Because, on offense, you look like hell." Wrench flashed him a dirty look. Zane laughed heartily.

Another charming laugh came from behind her. She turned around. Brown spiky hair; a huge six-pack; crystal blue eyes; a straight and white toothed smile; perfectly tanned skin; Conner O'Donnel smiled down at her. Wrench melted on the inside. She loved the way he looked at her like that. So calmly and sweet, with a matching personality. Wrench had a secret crush on Conner, and she hoped and wished he kinda felt the same way. Wrench had forbidden herself from ever loving another person. But Conner was an exception. And maybe Zane too. After all, they were both the closest she had to family...

"Move it, Salvatore!" A rough voice and shove made Wrench go tumbling into Conner arms, and he caught her swiftly. Wrench turned her head and saw Tanner Hawkins stalk by, narrowing his eyes and he sneered in her direction. She sneered back. Tanner looked a lot like his father, Dan, whom ran the place. Tanner had brown hair and blue eyes with a good build. But the physical description stopped there. Tanner was bitter and cold; Dan was nice and warm. Tanner didn't like her for some reason. In fact, he hated her guts. She had done nothing to him, and he treated her like dirt, which he knew she hated.

Wrench raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head. She knew that no one was going to respect her; never treat her the same outside the shop; never look at her as though she were a pretty girl. Wrench had lived with it for a long time. And so she was going to have to live with it. For now.

**A/N: It will be a bit of a while before I update. So plz tell me what you think of it, and I will take any comments. Thank you! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

~Wrench had no idea that beating four games of poker against Tanner would make him so jealous and angry. Tanner was shouting at Conner about something-stupid probably-and Zane stood behind Tanner, shaking his head.

Wrench caught what he was last saying. "...and she has to be a perfect little angel about everything around here! Why don't you and pretty boy behind me to tell her to get the...Salvatore!" He ran up Wrench and stuck his nose into her face. "You better have an excuse for winning all four games!"

Wrench frowned. Yup, he was acting jealous and stupid again. "Ummm...it's called luck, you moron. So don't come yelling at me," she said, holding up her hands and stepping back a bit.

Tanner's frame was vibrating. "I know it's nothing _close _to luck! You have to better than everyone, don't you, Daddy's girl?" he yelled. All the boys turned their heads to stare. Wrench heard Tanner grind his teeth and grumble angrily. Wrench hated it when Tanner was so jealous when he should be ignoring her and seeing her as a shadow. Wrench didn't see why he was so jealous.

Tanner puffed up as if he was a wolf defending his pack against another Alfa wolf. But he unpuffed and stormed away. Wrench went up to Conner.

"Ugh, Conner. Why does he hate me so badly? I don't mean to be better than him," she whispered. Conner hooked an arm around her neck and leaned her black haired head back on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about him, Tanya," he said, wounding a strand of her curly hair around his finger. "He's just envious of you."

Wrench whirled around and glared at him. "What? Him? Jealous of me? Oh, c'mon. I'm a girl," she protested, throwing her hands up.

Conner smiled gently. "You have to remember. He's been here since his father brought him home from the hospital. Ever since, Tanner loved engineering. He grew up learning from every source there was about engineering. But he was afraid someone was going to be better than him. And for a while, no one here was as good as him." He smiled wider at her. "Then you came along."

Wrench made her lips twitch, and she blushed slightly. Conner continued. "He's only mean because he knows you're better than him. And I know it can be mean when he says, 'She's a simple girl. She can't possibly be better.' But you've proved all of us wrong since that first day you stepped into this shop." He hugged her closer, pressing her head against his shoulder again.

He hadn't had the slightest idea how bright red Wrench's face was. Her body was engulfed in his warmth, and he smelled so damn good.

"So don't let that ol' boy get in your way. He's just jealous. He'll get over it soon. Okay?" he pulled his handsome face away to look at her.

Wrench grinned weakly and nodded. "Fine. But I get to be mean to him if he's mean first. So don't stop me from that," she teased.

Conner chuckled, and embraced her again. Zane walked up and muffled Conner's hair.

"Hey," he said. "Leave some love for me." Conner gave Wrench's hand a kiss and spun her over to Zane, whom hugged her as well, and both boys led Wrench up the stairs to her room.

Wrench giggled. "I don't see how you guys can live with being buds with a female," she wondered out loud.

Zane laughed. "You hardly act like a female, which is one, and you have the best personality anyone could have," he said, pushing some stray strands of hair out of her eyes. Conner threw his head back and laughed.

Wrench shook her head, stumbling into her dorm room after saying goodnight to her boys.

Wrench tossed herself onto her bed and fell into a deep sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and she pulled the dark covers up to her chin.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~"Madam, your father wishes to speak with you."

Wrench, whom was back then named Tanya Mai, looked up from her drawing and rested her gaze upon her nanny, Martyl. Martyl was in her late fifties, but still going strong like a twenty year old. Her hair was pinned up against her neck, and the folds of her tattered skirt brushed the floor with long waves when she walked. Ever since Tanya Mai(Wrench) was born, Martyl took care of Tanya Mai when Tanya Mai's mother died; the pair were inseparable.

Tanya Mai placed her pen down onto her drawing board and gathered up her moss green skirts before standing. Tanya Mai's hair was hooked up in a classic bun with two stylish pieces hanging in the front; Tanya Mai wore her green sandals, and heavy necklaces, that were too expensive for the poor, hung around her long neck, as did matching earrings. She walked gracefully, waiting patiently for Martyl to lock up Tanya Mai's bedroom.

"Why does my father wish to see me?" Tanya Mai asked, and Martyl looked at the young, wealthy, Italian heiress to the Salvatore family.

Martyl shook her head and shrugged. "I am not quite sure, madam. He simply asked me to fetch you," she answered. Tanya Mai blinked. Her father hardly asked to see his children without a reason.

_Must be important, _she thought, following Martyl to her father's study. Her father and two older brothers, Stefan and Damon, were talking amongst themselves, and Tanya Mai waited to be noticed by her father. When he looked in her direction, he said, "Come in, my daughter. Please, sit." Tanya Mai noticed her brothers move from their seats and leave the room. Martyl had busied herself with sewing in the corner near the glass window, rocking in a rocking chair.

Tanya Mai sat down delicately, and waited for her father to start. He did. "My dear, I know you have issues with Katherine Swartzchild, and I want to know why," he started, leaning forward on his elbows and staring at her with dark eyes.

Tanya Mai bowed her head in shame, knowing her father would bring up something like this sooner of later. "Well, I am not too sure, father. I wish she would be nicer to me than me to her. I have done nothing to harm her or insult her," Tanya Mai explained. It was true. Katherine, since the day she came, had stolen the love of Tanya Mai's brothers, and Katherine was mean to Tanya Mai for no reason. Even Tanya Mai's father had be entranced by Katherine's beauty.

Tanya Mai was very jealous of Katherine about her beauty. Katherine had hair that fell to her waist like golden water, and her eyes were so blue it was impossible. She had pale features with a perfect body shape. Tanya Mai felt degraded by Katherine's beauty and charm; Tanya Mai would spend everyday by herself or mingling with the servants. She had no friends except for the servants and Martyl.

Tanya Mai's father, Giuseppe Conte di Salvatore, straightened in his seat, and glared at his daughter with his dark eyes. "Well, Katherine told me you are the one who starts all the trouble. So don't assume that I do not suspect what's going on." Giussepe stood up and folded his large hands behind his back. "Now, I have been thinking lately. Like I said, I have noticed the hatred between you and Katherine. So I have decided to send you off to school in France, where they teach all kinds of advanced classes."

Tanya Mai stared. Then her insides shook with excitement. _France_! She had always wanted to explore the outside world of her house. Tanya Mai once had a servant sent down from France, and the servant, named Adelynn, had told Tanya Mai of her country. Ever since, Tanya Mai had dreamed of going there. Though she never expected to be sent away to school there.

Though Tanya Mai was excited, she somehow knew Katherine was listening to the conversation, through thoughts and voices. Tanya Mai had recently found out that Katherine Swartzchild was a vampire, and Tanya Mai knew about vampires. They had unlimited senses that can allow them to see and hear others. So Tanya Mai knew how to cover her excitement by acting depressed and upset.

Tanya Mai's face went white, her eyes widening. "But, papa, this is _my _house. Why must I leave? Why not Katherine?" she said, trying to keep the whine out of her voice. Her hands falsely shook in her lap, making little wavelets skim down her skirt.

Giuseppe always had a short temper. His face got slightly frustrated. "I know your upset, my daughter. But I have chosen this wisely. I only wish for you to go because you need to expand your experiences than just wasting time here in Italy learning nothing but what you already know. And since Katherine has had her experiences, I wish for you to go." Tanya Mai knew her father was trying to compromise with his youngest child, but she also knew he had no patience with her.

Tanya Mai looked ashen and sick, and Martyl, sitting so quietly all this time, now looked up from her sewing and stared at Giuseppe's back, baffled.

Tanya Mai seemed at lost for words. "But..." she stuttered disrespectfully. "I...I...I do not want to go!"

As she would have guessed, Tanya Mai's father shot up from his chair, knocking over a stack of books beside him. "I am sick of your whining, child! You will leave for France in one week! No exceptions!" He then turned to the bookcase with his hands behind his back. The muscles in his back were tight and tense.

Tanya Mai, pretending to not try and cry, stood up and, though his back was turned to her, bowed politely, and left with Martyl following her. Martyl didn't say a word; she kept on walking, almost trotting to keep up with Tanya Mai's long strides.

Along the way back to her room in haste to escape being stared at, she passed Katherine talking to Stefan, fluttering her lashes at him and smiling. Tanya Mai gazed straight ahead, ignoring Katherine's snide, "Hope you love France, Miss Salvatore."

When Tanya Mai reached her room, she ordered her maid to leave her be for a few moments, then flopped down onto her bed, and sobbed with loneliness and grief. But also with relief and hope.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench woke up slowly, her eyes opening steadily. The morning sun had not come up yet, and stars shine through the glass of the window. The night sky was clear and bright; eben the moon was showing.

Something was off about the atmosphere, though.

Wrench stopped breathing. Using the little Power sh ehad inside her, she stretched it out, feeling around for any glitches. Nothing. But why was it still uncomfortable?

Wrench decided to not waste her time on something she wasn't interested in, and drifted back to unconsciousness.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Outside the window, watching the little female vampire sleep, a fat crow was peering in, beak up against the glass. The crow had tried to peacefully wake Wrench, but he changed his mind by just waking her so he could get a better look at his sister.

Damon had no idea that his sister was still alive and well. He gazed at his sister alittle bit longer, taking in her long, black curly hair and Stefan's high cheekbones and that little crinkle at the corner of her eyes that reminded him of himself. He never noticed her eyes, though. They looked like melted chocolate, with tiny sparklets if rubies around her irises.

Damon smiled slightly, wished his sister a goodnight's sleep, then took off toward the boarding house.


	3. Chapter 3

**Songs that fit Wrench(Tanya Mai):**

**-Bullet For My Valentine=Tears Don't Fall  
****-Three Days Grace=Animal I Have Become  
-Joan Jett & the Blackhearts=I Love Rock N Roll  
-Evanescence=Bring Me To Life & Forever Gone, Forever You**

~The harsh screaming of the alarm woke her in the morning. Blurry eyed, Wrench flipped over and, moaning in frustration, slammed her alarm clock against the bedside table until the loud beeping finally shut up. She groaned again, and closed her eyes, trying to use Power to knock herself out into a deep sleep that not even a marching band could wake her even when they played right in her ear.

Eight minutes later, a loud knock on the door made Wrench yell, "What?!"

Conner's voice sounded lazy. "C'mon, Wrench. We only need to work four hours today, then you can sleep the rest of the day. Let's get going. _Andiamo! Ora!_" Conner used a favorite phrase Wrench used to use when she had to get the boys up in her native tongue, Italian.

Wrench chucked a pillow at what she thought was the door, and she smiled secretly when she heard Conner curse under his breath. "Ok, fine. But don't blame me when Dan comes in here and pours cold water all over your pretty hair." And with that comment, he left the room, closing the door loudly.

Wrench yanked another pillow up over her head, and tried desperately to cover face.

But it wasn't enough.

She felt her pillow snatched away from her, and cold liquid made her sit up and screech, "Ah! Was that necessary?"

Dan's alert and smirking face hovered over hers. "Salvatore, I don't need to be waking _you _up. _You_ need to be waking the _boys _up. Now put your gear into drive and get to work!" He slammed the door shut. Wrench sat there shocked, and water dripping from her face and neck.

After what seemed like a long time, Wrench forced her legs to move out of bed and dress in her usual uniform. A black frilly shirt with her last name on a name tag; black jeans and ugly but fitting running shoes. Wrench styled her shirt by tying the end tails of her shirt just above her belly button to show off her strong abs. She let a bit of cleavage poke through; then buttoned it up all the way. Even a rebel, she still had her tradition of being modest.

Wrench walked out of the room with her hair in a tight ponytail. Zane and Conner looked her way, and whistled. "Yeow, Tanya. Looking sexy," Zane said, and waggled his eyebrows at Wrench suggestively. Wrench flushed, and held up her one finger she knew was offensive. Conner burst out laughing so hard tears rolled down his cheeks.

Tanner was watching through the doorway that led down to the workshops, and he started gagging and coughing to try and hide his fake vomiting. Wrench sighed and walked by him, slinging her fist into his "equipment" along the way. Tanner doubled over in pain; Zane and Conner doubled over in laughter. Groaning, Tanner finally regained his balance on his feet. He started walking down the stairs, croaking an, "Ouch" every time he stepped down.

Zane laid a hand on Tanner's shoulder. "Don't worry, dude. She'll stop torturing you soon." Conner gave Zane a look of disbelief.

"Don't count on it. Wrench won't stop. She'll just get lower and lower," he said, and he and Zane walked away laughing. They followed the stairway outside where the workshops were located. The shops were small and made of brick and sheets of iron, which was worn away with rust and grime. Each shop was stocked with basic tools-like screwdrivers, wrenches, nuts and bolts-and every worker had to share with one other worker. Conner and Zane shared one; Wrench shared one with Zach. But Zach was usually in the office filing papers and delivering boxes of supplies the shop didn't need.

Wrench flipped open her garage door and walked inside, flipping on switches while doing so. She checked her messages on her phone, and got to work.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Five and a half hours later, while Wrench was trying to screw on a loose bolt on the car's engine, a loud, hard knock sounded at the steel door. Wrench wiped away sweat with a grease covered hand, and called, "It's open!"

Zane and Conner popped their heads in through the door, and Zane said cheerfully, "Hey, Miss Italian rebel! How's it going?" He laughed. Wrench rolled her eyes, and put both hands on the metal handle of the wrench.

"Fine. Working, unlike you two," she huffed, and, with her reflexive strength, yanked on the handle, watching the bolt tighten until the little piece of junk was in place, screeching in protest.

Zane, nicknamed "Bolt", had walked up behind Wrench, and watched her pick up the heavy engine and carry it over to the beaten up car. Conner, nicknamed "Screw", followed.

Bolt smiled. "Dan let us off an hour and a half ago. We finished our work early, too. So we can watch you slave away." He and Screw laughed and high-fived. Wrench smirked at them , and turned up the radio until it shook the whole building with rock music. She heaved the broken engine into the center of the car's front, and started putting it together.

Screw suddenly looked mischievious. "Hey, slave. Why don't you take a break and walk upstairs with me? And why? Because I said so," he suggested with a cocky smile. Bolt busted up.

Wrench let the comment slide and said, "Why don't you take your 'Driver' and go 'Screw' someone else, Conner." And Bolt got so hysterical he fell over clutching his side.

Screw flushed. "Aw, c'mon, baby. Don't be like that. You know you want me." He waggled his fingers toward himself, and rolled his hips.

The door cracked, and Zach looked through the gap. "Hey, Wrench. You almost done?" he asked casually. Wrench's eyes went wide and she shook her head.

"I'm surrounded by Cocky Boy here, and Zane is about to die of laughter," she informed, gesturing toward the cracking up Bolt and flushing Screw. She ran up to Zach and gripped his shirt, pretending to be dying of embarrassment. "You have to help me escape this horror! I want to live! Why must I die so young?!"

Zach sighed and said, "Wrench, you have the option to fire and kick them out, you know."

Wrench stopped acting idiotic, considering, but she tried being helpless once more. "But what if they haunt my dreams? I'll never live!" Zach shook his head.

Just then, Dan walked in, taking in the scene of mediocre. "Ok, someone explain what's going on in here," he demanded. Zane got up off the floor, still in hysterical giggles, and "Cocky Boy" flushed an even darker hue of red. Zach looked away, trying to be innocent. Of course he was anyway. Wrench let go of Zach's shirt and smiled.

"Nothing, sir. I was just trying to...to...uhhhhh..." She looked at the boys hopefully. All three boys pointed at her. Wrench tried an alibi.

"We were just...chatting, in the, um, old fashion Russian way. YELLING!" She ended the sentence with an example, screaming a loud "yelling." Dan blinked at the sudden loud sound, and rubbed his head.

"Salvatore, don't waste your time yelling at the boys. Only do that when they are being naughty. Now..." Dan got in Wrench's face. "GET BACK TO WORK!" He then grinned. "Is that how it's done, Salvatore?" He folded his long, muscular arms.

Wrench's eyes went wide again because of Dan's sudden play in the game, and she looked at Screw. He made kissing noises, growled a sexy growl, and smiled huskily while wiggling his brows. She answered Dan without looking at him.

"Ask Cocky Boy."

Dan looked confused, but Bolt-the poor guy was losing it-laughed again, and Zach, nicknamed "Pliers", looked baffled. Wrench stalked up to Screw and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. She pulled his head and neck down so she could whisper without Dan listening.

"Your embarrassing, Conner," she said through tight teeth. Conner laughed out loud.

"Ya love me anyway," he murmured back, then pecked her lips briefly before fleeing out the door. Wrench stood there, so shocked and stunned she didn't even breathe. Wrench's mouth was agape, and her eyebrows were the highest they had ever been.

But when he pecked her, her cheeks flamed, blood running hotly. Her mind was a jumble; she couldn't think straight. And her legs felt like rubber. She had never in her human or vampire life felt like this before. She had no idea that emotions could run around wildly in some people. She still felt his lips a little bit. Warm; and they smelled like Nacho Doritos. The thought sent waves of heat dancing across her lips.

She had never had anything like happen to her. She was always so stoic and guarded. No boy or man in the whole world appreciated her. No one had even acknowledged her. Yet, she felt close to Conner and Zane; mostly to Conner. But, shockingly, she _wanted _him to kiss her. Just for a little while longer; to feel his tongue dance in her mouth; to feel his warm hands grip her back closer to him; to wrap her arms around his thick neck, filled with delicious blood; to hypnotize him and carefully yank his head back; to sink her razor sharp teeth into his neck...

She broke out of her reverie.

_Tanya Mai Salvatore!_ she scolded herself mentally. _You have no time for boys. You said it yourself. No boy or man will ever look at you. Besides, your just thirsty for some nutrition. You haven't had some in three days. Why not take a little bit, come back, take a nap, then powl around with the boys. And we will pretend like this never happened._

Wrench nodded mentally and cleaned up her workstation after Zane and Zach ran out after Conner. Dan lingered behind, watching Wrench clean up her mess.

"So," he said after a while of silence. "I understand that you still have a real problem with Tanner."

Wrench looked up from wiping the counters of grease and grime. "Sir?" she asked, completely blank.

Dan walked up and laid a hand on the old rusty 1963 Mustang that Wrench was trying to repair for a desperate customer. He glided his palm across the edge of the car's hood, and kept going until it rested on the side mirror on the car's driver side door.

"Look, Tanya, I know that being around Tanner can be a real pain in the ass. Believe me, he was a nightmare. Still is, too." They both chuckled. "But...he is a nice guy. Ever since my wife brought him home, he adored engineering. Loved it every time I took him to this shop." Wrench thought she saw a tear run down Dan's cheek at the thought of deceased wife. "But he can get mighty jealous of people being better than him."

Wrench nodded. "Yeah. That's what Conner said yesterday," she said, remembering Conner's words. She tried to imagine herself kissing him again, though. The new idea sent little shudders down her back, and she pushed the thought out of her head.

"And he's right. Tanner loves this place. Loves everybody here, even you, even though he doesn't show it." Dan looped an arm around Wrench's neck and towed her out the door. "And he loves you like a sister, Tanya. Just being the best at something can be really tough on the guy. So don't let the boy get to you. Got it, Salvatore?" He grinned widely, and Wrench hugged him around the waist. He hugged her back.

"Thanks for everything you've given me, Dan. Really. I don't get much these days. So I just want to thank you," she muttered against his chest.

"Your welcome, Tanya."

They stood like that for a long time, just embracing each other. Though manager and worker, they were as close as father and daughter. Dan was very fond of Wrench though Wrench wasn't very fond of others.

Dan pulled away, and fluffed out his shirt, looking a bit embarrassed. "Sorry about that," he mumbled.

"It's okay," Wrench said, squeezing his shoulder before walking up the stairs to change into her afternoon stroll outfit. A black tank top with a black hoodie; black jeans and black snow boots, since it was cold outside, and the clouds seemed to invite in snow.

Wrench had just pulled up her hood and had walked outside when she noticed a black crow standing in the parking lot in front of her. It was a fat crow, with wings that had a rainbow tint to it. It walked around the lot looking for something to eat, then snapped its head up to stare at Wrench. Its beady black eye glared at her fiercely, and Wrench shuddered. The same feeling Wrench had felt last night wa snow back, adn she frowned.

The crow then took off and flew toward her. Wrench ducked, but the crow got a lock of her curly hair, and Wrench grunted at the pain on her head. She found a nearby stone and chucked it at the crow. But the fat crow had flown off behind the roof of the shop, and disappeared.

Wrench stood there, wondering why a crow tried to attack her. She could've grabbed the crow and wrung it's neck. But an instinct told her not to. But why?

Wrench walked her afternoon stroll in the forest in a haze of confusion.


	4. Chapter 4

~_I guess I am falling in love with Conner, _Wrench thought, looking at the little bubbling stream she sat by, lost in a reverie of emotions. She was still thinking about the little peck Conner gave her back at the shop, but that little peck made Wrench's world go topsy turvy. She had never felt like this before. So strange and emotional. So...confused.

Wrench was so confusing sometimes, even to herself. She had no idea an undead creature could have feelings of love and confusion. Wrench was never in love. She had no boys to flirt with around her home back in fifteenth century Italy. She always had to be courteous to her brothers and pay them respect when they didn't even deserve it. She even had to be gracious around Katherine just to please her father. But Wrench had secretly did the one thing that even her servant Martyl would've been ashamed of.

She had spent two years in the Russian mafia when she was supposed to go to the Russian school for strict obedience, a girls only school. And since then, she had become tough and hard as a turtle's shell. Maybe that was why Wrench never had people stare at her.

Wrench laid down in the grass beside the stream and daydreamed of her horrid past.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The carriage that carried a precious treasure wheeled down the dirt roads of Florence, Italy. The horses snorted and huffed as the warm air heated the windows of the carriage, both black as night with small stars on their foreheads. The driver had a handsome face with a shaved face. His eyes looked behind him at the window looked inside the stage coach.

"You alright back there, miss?" the driver asked.

Tanya Mai, the passenger coming home from her trip to France then Russia and back home, smiled. "Yes. How much longer, kind sir?" she wondered. It had been hours since she asked for a carriage ride home instead of walking. And she was getting a bit worried.

The driver showed his pearl white teeth. "Almost there, miss," he said, and shook the reins so the horses would run faster. Soon, Tanya Mai looked out her window to see a small mansion peep above a hill. Home at last. The house was a creamy yellow with a red tiled roof, and vines of beautiful roses crawled up the sides of the house. Horses grazed in her father's nearby pasture, and trees of lemons and apples crowded the garden of flowers that Martyl always loved to water and walk through. Tanya Mai even spied the fountain in the back.

After about five minutes, the carriage slowed to a stop, and the driver jumped down to assist Miss Salvatore from the stage coach. Tanya Mai stepped out in a ruby red dress covered in sewed in garnets. Her slippers and hair had the same garnets, and her jewelery hung heavily around her throat and from her ears. Her hair was in a pony tial that hung to the side of her neck, and small little curls hung in her eyes. Her eyes matched the dress perfectly.

The driver bowed politely. Tanya Mai bowed back, and handed him his payment. To her surprise, he shook his head. "No, madam. I wish for no payment. My payment was to get you here safely." He started to pull off her trunks full of French designed clothes.

Tanya Mai smiled when Martyl came running out of the house, and Tanya Mai ran. They met in the middle, and Tanya Mai embraced Martyl warmly.

"Oh, my dear! You look so beautiful!" Martyl gushed, and closed her hands over Tanya Mai's. Tanya Mai smiled, and felt tears fall down her cheeks.

"Oh, Martyl. I have missed you so much." Tanya Mai looked over Martyl's shoulder expectantly, looking for anyone, but no one else came. Her sudden happiness melted to despair "_Desidero che miei fratelli ed il padre verrebbero e mi saluerebbero_," Tanya Mai muttered through tears.**(A/N: The Italian sentence means: "I wish my brothers and father would come and greet me.")**

Martyl looked sympathetic. "I know, child." Martyl watched Tanya Mai sob quietly as she waited for her brothers and father to come to say welcome home. They didn't.

Tanya Mai's happy face fell into sorrow and loneliness. Martyl hugged Tanya Mai, and used a silken hankerchief to wipe away Tanya Mai's tears like they were the most precious treasures in the world. Tanya Mai collapsed into her nanny's arms and cried.

"I never wanted to come home, Martyl. I wish I could take you somewhere else with me. I did not want to come home. I loved France and Russia. But I hate my home town," she sobbed. Martyl sat there with Tanya Mai's head on her shoulder, stroking the weeping child's hair with tender care.

"You know, I have to agree. Katherine is a _donna egoistica. _She has nothing to do but study and play around with your brother, Stefan, and she won't treat the Italian slaves fairly." She cupped Tanya Mai's chin and tilted it upward slowly. "It will be over soon, my child. Soon, you can join a permanent school somewhere else in the world until you marry, and I will follow you. I will never abandon you. You are too special to leave behind." Martyl felt a tear of her own fall down her cheek.

Tanya Mai cuddled her head on Martyl's breast for one more heartbeat, then stood up on shaky legs. Martyl helped, and steadied herself.

The driver came up and bowed slightly. "Miss Salvatore, it has been a pleasure giving you a ride home. I must depart. Good day, Miss. Madam," he added, nodding in Martyl's direction. Martyl bowed, and smiled.

Martyl called for another male servant to fetch Tanya Mai's things while Martyl slipped an arm around Tanya Mai's elbow and led her to the front door. Once inside, Tanya Mai sniffed the air. Freshly baked bread filled the room, and servants scurried through the room, up the stairs or to the kitchen. Or maybe they headed off to the garden.

Tanya Mai's brothers and father were no where to be seen. Even Katherine seem to have disappeared. Tanya Mai let more tears fall down her face as Martyl led her to her room. As they walked, Martyl suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

"Your, um, father, bought you a pleasant dress for a formal occasion. He says it is a welcome home present," she mumbled. Unlocking Tanya Mai's door, Tanya Mai walked in and looked at her old portraits of herself and closet filled with dresses. Her four poster bed was headed against the far wall, the black curtains hanging from the canopy bed frame. The window overlooked the folding hills in the distance. Her books and drawings were stacked neatly in a corner of a dressing table, and makeup and hair combs and brushes linde th etable nicely.

A beautiful black dress was spread across the bed sheets. The dress showed the neck and shoulders, and the material was silky black and cotton. The chest had black ribbon weave in and out of hoops in a stylish fashion. The sleeves were cut and sewed back together with black stitching, and a pair of matching sandals and jewelery were next to the dress. The dress was made for a princess. It was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Tanya Mai didn't give it a second glance when she walked by and started to put away all her things. Martyl didn't ask any questions.

"_Ll Martyl, chiude la porta per favore," _she said, and Martyl shut the door, locking the lock.

Tanya Mai sat down on her favorite window seat next to the glass window over looking the courtyard below. She turned to Martyl. Seriousness was all over her features.

"Martyl, do you have the precious gift I have requested?" she asked, and Martyl nodded.

Tanya Mai leaned forward. "Is it here?"

Martyl nodded.

Tanya Mai's heart started to beat wildly. Martyl hurried over to a secret place beneath the rocking chair int he corner, slipping her fingers into a small spot. She came up with a black velvet covered box, and brought it over to Tanya Mai. She placed it in her lap. Tanya Mai knew that if anyone knew this secret, she would be in such big trouble.

Tanya Mai placed both hands on the sides of the box, and lifted the lid.

She gasped. It...was..._perfect._

A silver weapon lay in a velvet bed-a wicked looking dagger-and was wrapped in saffron silk. Tanya Mai unraveled the blade and examined the surface. The blade was molded with the most care, the blade as wide as three of Tanya Mai's finger put together. The blade was special because Tanya Mai had asked the blacksmith to try and mold steel and iron together to make the blade extra tough, and the blacksmith was going to get a small fortune from Tanya Mai for doing such an excellent procedure. The handle was silver with studs of steel along the sides. It flashed it's deadly wink in the sunlight.

Martyl didn't ask any questions, but she looked worried.

Martyl finally spoke. "_Suo padre non sara felice di questo," _she muttered to Tanya Mai, whom was still looking at the weapon's blade.

Tanya Mai looked up from the dagger. "I do not care anymore. I am going to do things on my own since no one will notice me. If you do not like it, I am sorry. But it is my choice," she said.

Martyl said nothing else after that.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~And right now, Wrench was staring at the wicked dagger she had used so many times through her journey to America right after she had changed into a vampire. She couldn't count how many times she killed with the weapon, spilling blood with the blade.

Wrench sighed.

Then the same crow that had attacked Wrench earlier landed on a branch high in an oak tree. Wrench bolted up from her sleeping position, and tensed, ready to spring. The crow simply stared at her, watching her with it's black eye. The great fat bird flapped it's wings and cawed loudly, and that's all it took.

Wrench couldn't take anymore. She ran. And ran. And ran. Toward the shop, which was six miles. She didn't want to run on legs, so she used her strength and blasted out Power from her mind, and within ten seconds, a black raven flapped it's wings hard and flew directly toward the shop. The raven felt the crow flying right behind her, and she flapped her wings in agitation. She flew higher than she ever had, almost touching the sky with her beak. The crow cawed, then started to descend the climb down to the earth.

The raven also descended, perching on a tree with a view of a field in front of her. The ground was starting to get covered in a white blanket of snow. In the distance, she spied a small barn next to the boarding house, shockingly seeing the fat crow fly toward the barn. A hunting hawk followed the crow, and both birds flew toward the old barn.

The raven cocked it's head, watching the two hunting birds, then took off herself, going the direction of the workshop.

Wrench walked up to the door and ran up the stairs, bumping into Zane and Jack along the way.

Jack tried to stop her with his hand, but he stopped her with his question. "Wrench. You looked freaked. What happened when your were out?"

Wrench looked at him. She couldn't tell him the truth even if she was dared to. She had lied about her brothers. She had said her brothers were dead. How could she explain that her brother Damon was now following her around?

Wrench asked her own question. "Have you two seen a big, fat crow with black eyes today? At all?"

Zane and Jack looked at each other, exchanging shrugs and a few whispers. Zane nodded. "Yeah. We saw a crow like that earlier. But it was looking straight at you," he informed.

Wrench sighed, and murmured, "Shit." Then stomped to her room.

She knew this. If her brother Damon was flapping his wings around, she knew her other brother Stefan was probably also near.

_Dammit all to hell! _she thought, and punched her pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

~Wrench couldn't sleep well that night. She tossed and turned under the covers, trying to close her eyes and get some shut eye. But sleep never came, and she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. She heard the boys say goodnight to each other before turning in, and she even heard Dan say goodnight to Bolt; he closed his door.

The entire building was suddenly so quiet it was scary even for Wrench. And she was a vampire, creature of the night. Night wasn't supposed to be intimidating.

Wrench laid so still, listening to crickets outside call to the quiet night. She felt odd, like something was wrong. Her vampire instincts told her to go to the window and look outside. But Wrench laid as still as stone, her breathing on hold.

The room seemed to darken, and the walls turned from gray to pitch black. Wrench got out of bed to look outside the window next to her. Dark clouds rolled into each other, seething over the moon like liquid onto a dish. The clouds turned everything black and dark, and Wrench shivered violently when she saw a black silhouette in the parking lot below her window. The figure was dressed all in black; black jeans, black jacket, black boots, black shirt. His belt was even black, with a silver wink from the belt buckle.

It was one of the figures she saw from the clearing, the black haired one. _One of her brothers. Damon._

Wrench grounded her teeth together, curling her hands into fists. Damon stood there and smirked, slouching slightly where he stood, watching Wrench. Wrench saw him smile for a split of a second, then the smile faded.

He talked to her in her mental mind, shocking Wrench so that she gasped and stumbled back.

_It is absolutely wonderful to see you again, mia sorella. And how have you been doing?_

Wrench was so shocked she didn't answer back. No one, not one vampire, has ever talked to her. But her own brother? How could she react to his smirking face? And has he always been that handsome?

Wrench started to back up from the window

Damon's mental laugh was like a bolt of electricity running through her body.

_Come now, Tanya Mai. Please do not ignore me. I simply wish to talk, just for a moment. Would you come down and say hello?_

Wrench snapped the shades shut and crawled back under the covers, shaken with confusion and shock.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench didn't have a second thought to walk outside. She stayed in her room for most of the day, seated on her bed, thinking with her brown eyes wide open. How could her brother know she was a vampire? Of course he hadn't seen her in over five hundred years, but how could he _not _act surprised that she was still alive? Still breathing?

A soft knock on the door sounded. Wrench jumped with a small yelp, and stood up to answer the door.

Zane stood in the hallway, a worried expression crossing his face when he saw how shaken up Wrench was. "Are you okay, Tanya? You look sick," he asked.

Wrench sucked in a quick breath of air before nodding. "Yeah. Just a really bad dream last night," she lied. She swiped a hand across her face, and realized she was sweating slightly. She pulled out a handkerchief and removed the nervousness evidence.

Zane shook his head. His hair was down today, swinging in his face. He wore loose jeans and a long sleeved shirt that fit him so well. He even wore snow boots. Wrench raised an eyebrow.

"Going skiing?" she asked, trying to look amused at his attire.

Zane's face was already red, but he flushed brighter and said, "It snowed last night, and the boys are having a snowball fight in the parking lot. Wanna join?"

_Why do all the boys blush when I look at them? _she thought absently.

Wrench shook her head. "No thanks. I've got a few things to do today. Sorry, man." She shut the door, and took out her dagger, slipping it into a sheath attached to her shin on her right leg. She yanked on a black jacket and walked outside.

It snowed alright. White landscapes stretched out in front of her in endless hills, and the roofs of the shops had caps of white packed onto their eaves. Wrench almost got hit with snowballs as she passed the boys, all laughing and having fun. Conner and Zane, along with Zach and Jack were throwing snowballs at Tanner and the Twins and the shop's newest worker, Johnny. Wrench clambered behind Conner's snowball war side, and grabbed a few pairs of chains for her tires from a warehouse. Zach immediately called time out, and trailed after Wrench.

"Need a hand? I need a break from getting pelted," he offered, taking some chains from Wrench.

As if on cue, a snowball smacked Zach and Wrench in the back of their heads, and Wrench heard Tanner howl with laughter. Wrench whirled around.

"If you get snow on my car, I'll personally rip your throat out!" Wrench threatened Tanner.

Tanner mocked her by hugging Johnny and taunting, "Oh, I'm so scared! A girl's gonna kick my ass if I don't be careful! Someone better call the police!"

Wrench threw up her middle finger before attaching chains on the front tires of her vehicle. A snowball to her butt made Wrench screech and curse in Russian.

"Ohmygod, you're a jackass! And perverted!" she yelled as Tanner rolled over laughing. She scooped up some snow, molded it into a ball with a rusted bolt from the ground snug inside the core, and flung it at Tanner's face. The ball went flying into Tanner's face, and he yelled at her when he felt the bolt stuck in his cheek.

Wrench scrambled in her dark red Hummer, and stuck the keys in the ignition before zooming out of the parking just as Tanner was about to chuck another snowball at her car. She went off in the right direction, and blasted her ears with hard rock music. The road was cleared of snow, but Wrench knew ice was going to be a problem, so she took her time getting to her destination.

The boarding house. She guessed Mrs. Flowers wouldn't mind if she visited her, since Mrs. Flowers lent her a room to stay in for a month. She and Mrs. Flowers were very close despite Wrench's past issues with people.

Arriving, Wrench noticed a yellow Ferrari parked in the parking space, along with a black Porsche. She frowned and wondered, _Since when was Mrs. Flowers into brand new cars?_ Wrench parked her dark red Hummer on the curb behind the yellow Ferrari.

Wrench walked up to the old building, opened the door since sh ewas laready invited, and stuck her head in the door.

"Mrs. Flowers? It's Tanya. Can I come in?" Silence.

"Mrs. Flowers?"

Nothing.

Wrench shrugged and assumed she was in the garden. Then laughed. Why would Mrs. Flowers be in the garden when her flowers are covered up with snow? Wrench was on her way to the basement when she spotted black movement heading toward the barn. A figure.

Wrench stopped walking and watched the dark figure take each step toward the barn. Wrench mirrored the figure's steps, following the figure up to the barn.

Four yards later, Wrench stopped, shifted into a raven, and flew the rest of the way. The dark figure stepped into the barn, not closing the door behind him. But just in case, the raven formed Wrench again beside a small crack in the barn, and gasped at what she saw.

The dark figure was non other than Damon, and he was stretching his long legs out in front of him, sitting next to a girl with shiny blond hair and jewel blue eyes. The same girl in the clearing a ew days earlier.

_Jewel blue eyes? Shiny blond hair? Katherine?_

Anger rose inside Wrench, and she watched as another dark figure leaned against the Wrench's side of the barn, his waist the same level as Wrench's peeping eye. Wrench glimpsed two other girls. One was a brunette with soft green eyes and a tall stature. The other was smaller than the first with red curls and brighter green eyes.

Pulling up her hood to hide herself, Wrench had just caught what Damon was saying.

"...don't see what you expect to accomplish."

The blond girl looked at him. "Neither did I," she said. "But I don't have any other ideas. Do you?"

Damon smiled a deadly smile filled with laziness and cockiness. "What, you mean about other ways to spend time? Yes, I do. Do you want me to tell you about them, Elena?"

Elena? Elena Gilbert? What the hell is she doing here? Elena waved him silent.

"I mean about useful things we can do at this point. Robert's out of town, Mrs. Flowers is down..."

"In the basement," chorused many voices.

"And we're all just sitting here. _Does _anybody have a better idea?" Elena continued.

Damon wasn't paying attention anymore. He was staring at Wrench's peeing hole, and she held her breath to a complete stand still.

The brunette girl spoke up, her voice cutting the silence of the barn. "Look, if you guys are worried about me and Bonnie getting hurt, why don't all of you come? Then, if anything happens to us, we'll scream for help and you can come to the rescue."

The red head, Bonnie, Wrench guessed, said, "I don't see any reason why some one will want to scream."

Damon squinted his eyes to glare at Wrench's hiding spot. His eyes bore into Wrench's single looking eye, and it looked like he wanted to snarl at her. Wrench started backing away slowly.

Wrench heard Elena say, "Damon, what's wrong?"

A fat crow flew out of the top of the barn, heading for Wrench. Wrench took off at a dead sprint, running so hard she never knew she could run that fast. Footsteps followed hers, and she felt Damon close behind her. She ran harder. He gained speed; she was as fast as a jet now, heading for the cover of trees. Damon didn't slow. He seemed as fast as Wrench, maybe faster. Wrench was getting scared now. She didn't want to get caught by her own brother.

She sprang for the trees.

Damon sprang, too. He grabbed her ankle and dragged her to the ground, and both vampires grappled hard. The rest of the group in the barn had come outside, and all four of then watched the two immortals battle. But the other dark figure, Stefan, the other figure from the clearing, joined in, and he yanked on Wrench's hair, and Damon went for her neck.

Wrench hadn't learned to fight for no reason. She gave her elbow to Stefan, and kicked Damon in the gut, but Stefan's hold on her locks didn't loosen. Damon had regained his energy, and pulled at Wrench's waist. All the while, all three immortals hissed and snarled at one another. The humans stood off to the side and watched anxiously.

Then Wrench slipped.

Stefan had lost his grip on her hair, and Wrench gave him an under swing of her arm before turning to Damon. But Damon had taken his shot at her, and he tugged at her sweatshirt that kept her hidden. He pulled hard though, and fabric tore. His foot shoved Wrench, and she tumbled toward the trees. Her back smacked the base of a tree.

Her sweatshirt was in Damon's grasp, and he looked stunned.

Wrench got to her hands and knees, trying to breathe from the hard kick Damon gave her. Her vision was blurry, and her back stung. She painfully turned her head in Damon's direction.

His face was stunned for a moment, but he smiled dangerously.

"Why, it's _mi sorella._ How nice of you to join us," he purred, wiggling her torn sweatshirt in his fist.

Wrench dropper her head in defeat, cursing the whole world to hell.


	6. Chapter 6

~Wrench wanted to run. She wanted to die and poof into dust. She wanted to burn to ashes and be blown away by wind. She couldn't handle seeing her brothers anymore. She had seen them once, and they treated her like dirt. No. They won't do it again. Especially Damon.

Wrench heard a strangles gasp, and Stefan was stared at her as though she was an exotic animal he'd never seen before. His mouth was agap, his green as summer leaves colored eyes wide and stunned.

Damon dropped the sweatshirt, and smiled dangerously.

"Come on, Tanya Mai. Don't be rude. Talk now, little heiress," he pressured. But he bent over and offered Wrench his hand. Wrench snarled, and got up herself, brushing snow off her jeans and straightened up her spine.

"The name," she hissed, getting in Damon's face. "is Wrench, now. But that doesn't matter now does it?" She snatched up her sweatshirt and started walking away. She felt a rush of wind, and Damon was in front of her again. He stood motionless.

"Now, now. You know that isn't a proper way to say hello to your brothers. Be polite," he said in a charming tone. Wrench had always hated that tone.

Wrench snarled. "Bite me."

"Glad to, Tanya Mai."

Wrench attacked him, aiming at his neck with her teeth long and bared. But Damon's hand came up and caught her own throat, squeezing out her air. Wrench choked and gasped. Damon tsked.

"You are a very naughty little princess, my dear. Daddy wouldn't be happy with your actions now, would he?" he accused harshly, reliving the days when Wrench did something that her father didn't appreciate. Her father would simply lock her in her room with no supper. Wrench hardly ate anything anyway.

Wrench laughed with no humor. "Ya wanna see bad actions? Oh, I'll show ya bad actions." Then, with a grunt and little effort, she hit his chin with her foot, hearing a sweet crunch. Damon released Wrench's throat, spitting blood and stumbling. Wrench took hold of his shoulders and tore open his throat with her teeth, letting his blood spill over the white ground. Then released him.

She tried running. Another hand caught her arm. Stefan.

"Let me go, you bastard!" Wrench yelled, yanking on his grip.

"Wait, Tanya Mai! Please," he begged. Wrench hissed in his face. Stefan's face went paler than it usually looked, and he tried to say something, but only his lips moved. No words came out of his mouth has he stared at his one and only sister with that same hated look in her eyes. That same hatred reflected her actions towards her brothers.

Elena spoke up. It was nothing but a small whisper. "Stefan, who is this?"

Stefan didn't answer at first. His eyes kept searching her face, looking for one trace of false identity. He didn't.

"Elena, Meredith, Bonnie. This is Damon and I'sonly sister. Tanya Mai Salvatore," he said with a small croak. Damon was pressing a handkerchief over his neck, and Stefan had let go of Wrench.

Wrench shook with rage and stepped back. "My name is Wrench, not Tanya Mai. And I don't have any brothers."

Stefan seemed confused, but Damon simply laughed.

"Don't deny your own family, 'Wrench.' You know you can't escape being a sister," he said.

Wrench glared. "I don't deny anything. I just don't have any brothers."

Damon sighed. "Tanya Mai..."

"It's Wrench!"

"Ok, 'Wrench.' You just can't pretend you don't know us."

"I sure can."

"No you can't."

"Wanna bet?"

"How about a bite?"

"Kiss my ass, Damon."

"Oooooo. She's got a mouth. Wanna see what I can do?"

"Shut your fanged mouth Damon! I'm not scared of you!"

"And if I refuse?"

Wrench hissed and crouched.

Damon stood there and smirked.

Elena came forward and said, "Well, um, Wrench. It's nice to meet y..."

"Oh, go to hell, blondie. I know what you're doing here. It's not gonna work," Wrench snapped, teeth aiming for Elena's outstretched hand. Elena blinked. And stared. She pouted. It looked so much like Katherine it was disgusting.

"What am I doing?" she asked innocently.

Wrench choked on a laugh. "Like you don't know."

Stefan finally moved. He reached out with his outstretched hand and went for Wrench's neck. Wrench's hand snapped toward Stefan's cheek, and she felt and heard the sharp smack.

"Don't. You. Dare. Touch. Me. Again," she warned. Wrench pushed her way through the staring human girls, and stalked toward her car.

She sobbed quietly the whole way back to the shop.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Zane and Conner had won the snowball war and were cheering their heads off when Wrench pulled her car into the lot. The Twins looked embarrassed for losing the war, and Tanner was sulking inside the building.

Wrench stomped inside, shaking of the stray flakes of snow in her hair. Zane and Conner flew to her, smiles on their handsome faces.

"Hey, Salvatore! You missed a great...Tanya?" Conner noticed Wrench's red eyes and touched her cheek. It was still wet from tears. "What's wrong?"

Tanner laughed. "She probably got screwed over and she regrets it," he said.

Wrench dropped her coat and flew across the room to grab Tanner's shirt and back him against the wall, rage scrawled all over her face. Shudders of fury rolled of her body.

"Shut up, you bastard of hell! I wanted to have a peaceful day, but it got all ruined, and you're nor making it any better! SO SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Tanner's sarcastic face grew scared and worried about his life. Zane came up, as did Conner, and they both gently pried Wrench off Tanner.

"Tanya, just relax. Why don't you go up to your room and nap a bit," Conner offered, squeezing her hand.

Wrench whirled around and tried hard to not snap his neck in half. "Don't call me Tanya! My name is Wrench, dammit! So deal with it!" Her teeth ached from grounding them together so hard.

Zane looked so worried. "Wrench, I think you need to go relax a bit. Conner's right. Go take a nap, and you'll feel better," he suggested calmly.

Wrench kept shaking with rage, and Zane embraced her from behind. "Just calm down, Wrench. Tell us what happened," he whispered.

Wrench's rage started to melt. She started crying, shaking her curls. "I can't, Zane. I just can't."

He sounded hurt. "Why not?"

"I just can't!"

"Alright, Wrench. I understand if you don't want to say."

Conner handed her a bottle of water, and, though she couldn't drink water, guzzled it down until it completely disappeared. She washed her face at a nearby sink and scrubbed her cheeks of sweat and tears. Then ran upstairs to her room.

A black crow was looking in, the black eye watching her every move. Wrench walked up and shut the shades hard, then hit her head on the pillow, weeping all the while.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench stood in a garden surrounded by apple and orange trees. Roses, tulips, lilacs, freesias; all kinds of flowers lined the edge of the garden. The smell of them together made a scent so exotic that not even Wrench had a name for it. The sky was a deep light blue with not a speck of clouds blocking the way.

Wrench wore a satin silk red dress that matched her eyes. Her hair held garnets and onyx stones, as did her sash around her waist. Wrench smiled and looked around at the flowers, smelling each one in turn.

Two figures stepped into the garden. Damon and Stefan. Both were dressed in black jeans and white formal shirts.

Wrench stared, not really getting the dream at all. She turned her back on her so-called brothers, and knelt to sniff at the lilacs. She faintly heard footsteps, but ignored them.

A warm hand clasped hers. She jerked her head up and Damon was smiling down at her, his white teeth glistening in the sunlight. His face showed no sarcasm, but love and compassion for his family. Wrench stared back, not quite sure what to do. Stefan appeared behind her other shoulder, and he grasped her other hand.

Damon lifted her hand up, and she followed. Stefan kept his hand in hers. Wrench didn't smile. She was quite confused, if not shocked. She watched Damon and Stefan walk her to the middle, where a fountain was sputtering water gently. Stefa sat down on the lip of the fountain, but Damon kept her standing, and gracefully whirled her into a slow dance. Soft, beautiful piano music drifted in from nowhere, and she mechanically picked up her red skirts.

She had no intention of dancing with the two people she hated most, but her own actions were controlled by someone else. But she was allowed to keep her eyes down from Damon's face and felt tears fall gently.

Wrench remembered how she wished her brothers would do something like this with her back in the old days. But the old days were gone, and she didn't feel any better when Stefan broke in and waltzed around in the little square of roses.

Wrench let her brothers waltz with her a few more times before Damon stood back and frowned.

_What is the matter, my sweet sister? _he thought to her.

Stefan looked at her and frowned himself.

Wrench kept her eyes to the ground and folded her hands in front of her dress. Tears crashed onto the cobblestone, and Wrench's lashes had little crystal diamonds. She didn't want anymore pain or memories from these two, and she never knew what love was either. Love was an emotion she didn't know. She had never knew the description of love because it wasn't in her vocabulary. And these two were trying to give her something she didn't understand.

Wrench used her thoughts to escape the beautiful dream, and soon, she woke up early in the morning, at five o clock AM.

_That dream...was so beautiful and real, _she thought. _So why does it feel so wrong to me?_

Wrench remembered harshly what her brothers did to her. Katherine had captured there attention when Wrench was around them,a dnthey completely forgot about her. Katherine did it on purpose to isolate poor Wrench until she shut herself away with no help from Katherine, and just the thought of another Katherine around was just too much to burden on her heavy, empty heart.

She tumultuously closed her eyes and fell asleep again, fresh tears slipping out of her eyes. Her head was filled with awful images of Katherine's smirking face and selfish self. Wrench had no cure for the horrible pain now. Her sobs broke the heavy silence around her room.

**A/N: I know, I know. This is one bad chapter, but it was all I had. I promise I'll be better on the next chapter. **

**Piano Music for Wrench's dream:  
-Romantic Piano Piece(Lullaby by Brad White & Pierre Gill)  
-Another Spring-Time (by Roy Todd)**


	7. Chapter 7

~_Damon and Stefan are not my brothers. Damon and Stefan are not my brothers, _Wrench thought, convincing herself to not think about her encounter with them as she worked. She woke up with the piano music in her head, the music playing vividly and over and over again. The urge to play the piano music tingled in her fingers, even as she held a pair of large pliers, working on the underneath of the car.

Wrench had had enough of her so-called brothers and their little imagination game of being good brothers. Wrench would've laughed in their faces. Good brothers? Likely. They never even talked to her once while she was a human. Now that she had fangs and killer reflexes, she could simply ignore them if she wanted to. But then she remembered they could find her anywhere because they were vampires as well.

_Well, shit, _thought Wrench, pulling on a loose screw from the water tanks. _Now my brothers can follow me and haunt for the rest of my cursed life. Unless I leave Fell's Church, which I'll never do, they'll find me anywhere, anytime._

The horrid thought sent shudders of disturbance dancing up her back, and she sighed. With a final twist of her wrist, the screw came out, and water spilled out over Wrench's face.

"Dammit," she cursed under her breath, and scooted her bench from underneath the car. Washing her face at the sink, she looked in the mirror. Nothing there. Just a whisper in the wind. Like it will always be.

She grabbed a wrench, but dropped it when Damon's voice crooned in her thoughts.

_Not a very acceptable place to work for, my sweet sister. Perhaps you should take up knitting and cooking._

Wrench growled, spun around, and noticed Damon standing in a dark corner of the room. His arms were crossed over his broad chest, and the smirking mask he wore was intense. His boots were covered in fresh snow, but nothing was different from his black attire. Wrench gave him a filthy look, and threw daggers at him with her eyes. She retrieved her dropped tool, and turned her back.

"What the hell do you want?" she hissed through clenched teeth. The last thing she wanted was her "brother" bothering her at work. Damon laughed. He rubbed his chin, examining her work station. He scanned his eyes over the work bench; stared at the beaten up car; watched Wrench place a bolt on the engine with amusement sparking in his eyes.

"This place is very...messy. I thought Renaissance girls were clean and spotless. But this place is a sad sight. Even the floor is black with grease," he commented. He scuffled his foot along the dirty, greasy floor of the shop.

Wrench looked up from her work. "Like watching me work has ever been a hobby for you," she muttered.

Damon walked up to her, looking over her shoulder. "And another thing. Had engineering been your favorite thing these days? I used to remember you loved to stroll through the garden back home with the pesky servants..."

"Damon, _chiudere la sua bocca!_" Wrench shouted. She flung her wrench to the ground, the metallic sound earsplitting even to Damon and Wrench. Both vampires flinched at the sound. Wrench got in his face, rage rolling off her body. "You don't know one damn thing about me. You think you can just waltz in here and tell me you've always known me, but I've got something to say, Fang Face. You know _nothing _about me!"

Something in Damon's black eyes flickered behind the charcoal smugness. Something that struck Damon secretly though he kept a good poker face. It was something Wrench had never seen before. Sympathy? Kind heartiness? The flicker was there then disappeared just as quickly. Wrench stood stiff, and watched Damon crack a small smile.

"Little _sorella, _you may think that, but I have watched you for a while now. So I know a bit more than you think I do," he declared proudly. Wrench snarled. He continued. "In fact, I watch the entire place off and on. So I know a bit more than _you _do. Did you know that Zane and Conner are both _in love _with you, _mi sorella?_"

Wrench didn't say anything. She stared at his face, shocked beyond belief. Damon shrugged. "Just thought you wanted to know. If you don't mind, I will be going now." He left Wrench standing there, mortified. He stopped at the door. "Unless, of course, you wish to join me in a quick bite...the offer is left open for you." Then he did a funny thing. He bowed low, as if saluting the queen of England, smiled his dazzling smile, then left, closing the door quietly.

Everything was still, even Wrench's heart beat and breathing.

_In love with me? _she thought, mind spinning. _The two bestest and closest friends I had ever known, are in love with me? BOTH of them?_

Wrench felt like she was going to faint.

Suddenly, realizing she received this from Damon, her "brother", she mentally slapped herself. What the hell was she thinking? The two boys were close buds with her, not secret admirers. They were best friends; not lovers.

Glancing at the clock on the wall above the door, she realized she was allowed a break for ten minutes. She sat on a hard stool and went back in time at the very first day at that very workshop. And the first day she met Conner and Zane.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench had left her things at Mrs. Flowers boarding house, and drove her beaten up Mustang to Dan's Auto N Repair shop to fix the piece of junk. She could've fixed the car herself, but she didn't want to bother Mrs. Flowers about buying new tools since she was left with only two hundred dollars in her wallet, which wasn't much anymore.

Wrench, at the time simply called Tanya, arrived, and clambered out of the driver's side. The heat of the summer sun beat down on her, and even the shorts she wore turned damp from sweat. She twirled her car keys around her finger and walked up to the door. A _Help Wanted _sign sat posted on small suction cups, and advertisements from other people were taped to the window of the front office. Tanya walked inside.

It was cool and refreshing inside, air conditioning blowing over all the customers. Speaking of which, the customers buzzed and the place was busier than she had ever seen in a shop. Most of the customers were young teenagers around fifteen to nineteen, mostly female, and Tanya wondered why. Soft rock music sounded from little speakers, and the speakers were nailed to creamy grey walls and the floor was tiled neatly and polished a pure white. Magazines and tools for sale lined the walls.

Tanya stepped in line to wait for her turn when she noticed a lonely application inside a clear plastic box. Tanya gave her place to the person behind her, and stepped up to the box. Tanya wondered something. She had studied engineering for a long time-three hundred years she studied it-and she desperately needed a job to pay Mrs. Flowers back for the room she rented. Making sure no one was watching her, she hastily grabbed the paper, walked over to a vacant table, and took her time filling it out.

The rewards for working here was shocking. If she got the job, she would get a room costing only two hundred dollars, employee discount, and she would be given a work shop to share with another worker. Her payment would be twelve dollars an hour, and she would be able to have a new car if she used a day of vacation at work.

The only problem was: she didn't have a resume for the job. Dammit.

Tanya looked at the paper, then smiled, suddenly driving home to her computer and typed up a quick resume. Mrs. Flowers was startled when she came sprinting down the stairs again and headed for the shop.

"Child, what's the hurry?" she asked, staring at Tanya over her beak nose. Her onyx eyes were soft and firm, reminding Tanya of Martyl.

Tanya smiled an epic smile. "I think I found a job," she said simply, then darted out the door. She came back to the shop eight minutes later.

This time, Tanya waited until one of the cashiers was standing alone with no customers, took a deep breath, and approached the counter. Now she knew why most of the customers were young girls. The cashier was cute, with long black hair tied back with a hair band. He had smokey grey eyes and a good build. A nice tan painted his body. Zane.

Tanya said a shy, "Hey."

Zane looked up with a charming smile and said, "Hi. Can I help you?" His voice was deep and was pleasing to listen to.

Tanya blushed, but forced her lips to move. "Uhhh...yeah." She awkwardly held up the application. "Can I turn in an application for a job?"

Zane looked shocked for a moment, then smirked. "Wow. Been a while since a girl tried to apply." He smiled again. His teeth were slightly crooked, but otherwise white and glittery. His eyes were like fog on a summer day. So light and yet so heavy with emotion at the same time. He was kinda cute, too.

Tanya cracked a small smile, a small twitch of her lips. "Yeah, well. I need a job badly, and, well, I haven't found anywhere else that'll allow a girl like me. So...here I am." She held up her hands and shrugged.

Even his laugh was nice. He laughed a deep sound. "We need some fresh blood anyway. I think Dan's available now, so I'll go and see if he's okay with seeing you. Just wait here." And he disappeared behind a big oak door. Five minutes later, he reappeared and smiled. Tanya smirked slightly at the word "blood."

"Dan has no problem with seeing you right now. So come on back," he said, and strolled over to a white door and waved Tanya in.

Tanya stepped through and followed him into what seemed like Dan's office. His office was decorated with old pictures of cars and motorcycles. His desk was messy with papers and stacks of portfolios, a huge computer off to the left of the desk. Sitting behind the desk, was Dan himself. He had a stern face and intelligent green eyes. His smile was bright and clear, and he stood at least six foot two. Tall. Really tall. His mussy brown hair stuck up in every direction, and his broad hands were folded on top of each other in front of him. He didn't look very happy right now.

A tall guy, about Tanya's supposedly age, slumped in a chair in front of the desk. His hair was lighter than Dan's, but he had the same face shape, and his smile was bright. His eyes were dark green, and his body looked perfectly sculpted. His hands were just as broad as Dan's. But his face was totally different from Dan's. His face was angry, but the way his eyes were telling Tanya made her shiver. They were cold and lifeless.

Tanya just caught what they were talking about when she came in.

"...and I don't want to hear another word about it, Tanner. Now leave. We have an applicator," Dan was saying, and he waved a hand toward Tanya. She flushed and Dan grinned widely. Tanner turned around, a thoughtful look on his face as he studied Tanya. Then he burst out laughing. It was humorless and chilled Tanya to the bone.

"Good luck. She'll probably say she's never even touched a wrench before. Let alone work here. Good luck Dad," he spit, then stalked out. Tanya simply didn't care about his comment. She was used to it. Though she wished it would stop.

Dan stood up and offered his hand to Tanya. "It's nice to meet you Tanya Mai Salvatore," he greeted. Tanya knew that Zane had lingered behind against the wall behind her seat.

Tanya tried to smile, though it was a bit hard. She never, ever smiled, but Dan's charming and bright smile convinced her otherwise. "It's nice to meet you, Dan. Please, call me Tanya," she said.

Dan nodded. "Tanya. Welcome to Dan's Auto N Repair Shop!" he exclaimed, and waved his long arms around his big small office.

The door opened up again, and a young man walked through. _Good God, _Tanya thought at the sight of his crystal blue eyes that twinkled like a blue lake, and the color of his hair was the perfect shade of chocolate. His facial features gave him a square chin with a deeply set mouth and his nose was straight and perfect. His black frilly shirt showed his arms, and they bulged like baseballs were stuffed underneath his skin. His skin had a killer tan, and he smiled, showing glittery teeth.

Conner O'Donnel.

Since then, Tanya had had a small crush on him.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench snapped back her thoughts to present time. And stared at the beaten up Mustang next to the garage door.

A black crow stood in a window behind the steel sink, looking through the window with curiosity.

Wrench banged her head against the counter and groaned.


	8. Author Note

**A/N:People, I would really like some reviews. If there is anyone you know that likes Vampire Diaries, PLZ recommend this story if you liked it. I will appreciate any comments or questions, but PLZ review more. It makes me write more!!! :-)**

**Plus:If any of you have not read The Vampire Diaries:The Return: Nightfall, then do not ask about why there is a name called Shinichi in the next chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

~The next few days were agony to Wrench. Almost every day, she got a quick visit from Damon and sometimes even Stefan. Wrench blew them both off by being snitty and acting like she didn't care, but every time they saw her, she wanted to cry so badly.

Wrench had never cried before since becoming immortal. Now she never even knew immortals could cry.

There was one day where both brothers came and saw her while she was lounging on the roof of her garage. A large crow and a dark colored hawk landed on both her knees, and she swatted them away.

Damon and Stefan materialized in front of her. Wrench tried to fly a kick toward Stefan's stomach, but he dodged fluidly by side stepping her foot. Damon at down beside her.

"Well...well...well," he purred slowly. "How is your life so far at this place you call 'work?'" Damon's had gestured around him. Wrench sneered at them both and leaped off the roof, her shoes not making the slightest sound. Stefan looked eager to find out why Wrench was living here, but she completely ignored them.

Damon now stood in front of her, brooding eyes watching her every move. Wrench hissed and bared her teeth. She felt like his eyes could see right through her clothes, through her skin, through her soul...right where an empty hole now was. There was no love or compassion there; just empty an empty hole in her heart.

Stefan gently grabbed Wrench's arm, but she shied away and made her way to the garage door. "Damon, you're wasting time just hanging around here. So go away," she muttered, and slammed the garage door in his face.

Since that time, she'd hid herself in the garage, and almost ran all the time just to get to the main building. Zane and Conner asked her when she got there, out of breath.

"I...um...just hate seeing crows every where. That's why," she explained, then dashed up the stairs.

Later that evening, she had caught something so shocking she had no idea how to react.

She was walking toward the meeting room, when a dark shadow flitted across the far wall near the front door to the cashier counters. Stopping, Wrench watched the far wall again, but nothing seemed ot come up. But she let her mind expand, letting anyone nearby to hear her thoughts.

A little tingle in her mind told her something was off, and decided to follow the trail of Power. She had a good guess it was probably Damon since he always followed her.

"Ugh, Damon. You son of a bitch." she swore, and trailed after the Power. She ended up rounding a corner that led to the outhouse where trucks imported the shop's materials customers needed, but the outhouse was abandoned on Fridays.

Wrench stopped dead in her tracks when she heard voices floating in from the inside. So quietly that she didn't even hear herself, Wrench crept up to the cracked door of the loading dock, and small male voices drifted out of the door.

"...and you had better find a way to make sure she doesn't get in the way, got it Hawkins?" A stern male voice said.

Wrench stood there, her heart going wild. _Tanner, what are you doing?_ she thought.

The sound of Tanner's gruff voice was heard. "I promise, Shinichi. Now where is my payment?"

Wrench raised an eyebrow. _Shinichi?_ How strange. A name so uncommon. It sounded Asian.

Wrench waited a few seconds before hearing a sharp slap. She caught Tanner's dark silhouette sprawl out across the floor.

"You don't get any payment. I saw you flirting with my sister, and so you have to live with your consequence," the first voice said.

Wrench heard scuffling, and Tanner stood. "Well, what is so important? I do what you ask. So what else you want me to do? The chick is immortal for God's Sakes! How the hell am I supposed to get to her?" Tanner's voice sounded desperate.

The first voice sighed. "Well, there is one thing you can do," he said quietly.

Wrench waited.

"Kill her and her brothers. And I will reward you handsomely."

Wrench had gone frozen like she was encased in a block of ice. Tanner's next words proved the coldness that ran down her back.

"I will. Just tell me how."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Tanya Mai had now kept her wicked weapon hidden under Martyl's big chair, inside a huge crack in the floor. Tanya Mai hardly had any run ins with Katherine, and she never saw her brothers. Tanya Mai had come home from Russia and had told her stories to Martly.

Then a week later, Martyl rushed into the big bedroom, flinging open the big closet doors of Tanya Mai. Tanya Mai, sitting in the window sketching, jumped when Martyl tossed a midnight blue dress onto the bed and retrieved a pair of matching sandals. Tanya Mai set aside her sketch, and stood, watching  
Martyl scatter around the room.

"Martyl?" Tanya Mai asked, confused. When her maid didn't speak, Tanya Mai tried again. "Martyl? What in all the heavens is wrong?"

Martyl, pulling Tanya Mai behind a big screen to hide Tanya Mai's dismodesty, finally spoke. She spoke like she had being running around the house all day."The queen...of England's...royal advisor and his wife are on their way...here to visit."

Martyl yanked off Tanya Mai's house dress, a silky golden shimmery dress of the finest silk. Tanya Mai stood there in a tight corset, and Martyl started tying the dark blue dress.

Tanya Mai sucked in at the increased squeezing of the corset. "You mean papa's...oooooh," she grumbled at the tightening corset. "His old friend whom once knew my mother? Duke de Voureau? And his wife, ummm..." She was trying to shift through old memories of the old Duke and his wife, but Martyl interrupted.

"Duke de Voureau and his wife Mary Ellen de Voureau," she answered. Martyl slipped Tanay mai's feet into the glittery sandals, and fastened blue earrings into Tanya Mai's ears.

A soft knock on the door sounded. Martyl called out, and Damon stuck his head in the door.

"_Mi sorella,_ an interesting looking Duke and his overly happy maiden are here," he said, then smirked. Tanya Mai rolled her eyes.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench's eyes flew open at the _tap tap tap _at her window. Dreaming about her past seemed to have no affect on her mood, since she knew Tanner was up to something dangerous. But the large crow staring through her window made Wrench want to take a stake to her chest just to end her immortal life.

She lifted the window open and felt her body shake. The raven followed the crow up to the roof of the dorm building and formed Damon. The raven grew bones and grew stature, becoming Wrench again.

"Ok, ok, ok. I don't know what you want Damon, but you seriously need to ignore me and leave me alone. I don't want to hear how you know this place better than I do. So just tell mew what you want and I'll do it," she growled, leaning down into a crouch, fiddling her fingers together.

Damon smiled that small smile again before it disappeared. He stuffed his hands into his back pockets. "Nothing. Just a few questions," he purred.

Wrench stared at him, and when he was just standing there, she said, "Well, ok. I'm outta here."

"Are you the one causing alot of the nonsense around Elena and the human girls, Bonnie and Meredith?" he asked suddenly. Wrench stopped walking toward the roof's edge and turned around.

"What do you mean by 'causing alot of nonsense?'" she asked, crossing her lean arms and carefully walking up to him. Damon looked amused and sarcastic as usual, but he, for once, looked serious. He didn't blink an eye lash, simply watching her stand in front of him.

"Someone has been causing problems around Fell's Church, and I just came by to ask if you had anything to do with it. Bonnie's dog was killed, a white owl is following Elena around, and me and Stefan feel little bursts of Power that we have no idea where it came from," he said. "Nothing is making sense around here. So I was thinking...was it you whom did all that?"

Wrench didn't even have anger flashing through her body. She answered plainly.

"No. I don't even know what Bonnie's dog looks like. And I don't change into a white owl. I change into a black raven. So, no. I am innocent."

And with those last words, she flung herself off the roof and swung into her bedroom window, slamming the window shut along the way.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~The next morning. Wrench was on her way to the shop to help at the front when Zane stopped her. He looked real concerned.

"Zane? Are you ok?" she asked as he pulled her aside and pressed her against the wall.

"No. I woke up, like I usually do, and I went to wake up Conner. But when I knocked on his door, he didn't answer. His door is locked, too. Do you think you could...?" He motioned behind him where boys were coming down the stairs, and Wrench nodded. The boys hardly asked anything else of her anyway.

Wrench walked up the stairs and walked up to Conner's dorm door; two doors down from Wrench's. Wrench had always known that Zane cared about Conner(and Wrench) more than an other person in the world. So she understood why Zane was chewing uncomfortably on his fingernails.

Wrench took out a key that could unlock any door, and peeked inside. She expected Conner to have one arm over his eyes, snoring so loudly even Wrench could hear him. Or maybe he was getting ready but woke up late.

The spacious room was empty of Conner.

Zane whimpered behind her. Wrench stepped over fallen shirts and boxers, walking around the room to see what happened.

"Looks like he was sleep fighting," she observed, noting how the bed was torn and the table lamp was knocked over. The room looked like it had been through a hurricane and tornado all at once.

A chocking sound came from the open door of Conner's bathroom.

"I don't think he was sleeping," she heard Zane say. No, he chocked it out through a thick throat. Wrench frowned and turned to see where he was standing. Zane's face was pale with a tinge of green, as though hr was going to be sick, and he looked bewildered.

Wrench, not knowing why he was so shocked, walked over to him, looked through the bathroom door, and...and...and...went numb.

Conner's bathroom was covered in red. The mirror, the sink, the shower, _everything._ The shower curtain was torn, and the toilet seat had been ripped off it's hinges. Even the walls were splattered.

Wrench nearly screamed at the sight of Conner.

His body was crumpled in the far corner, almost invisible by the sink, and his eyes were glassy, staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. His chest and face was painted red, and the rest of his body was bitten in two other places; his leg and the pulse point at his wrist. His mouth was frozen in an eternal scream.

His throat was bitten, no, _torn_, open, blood gushing from the wound.

Zane went greener, and turned his head to vomit up his last night's dinner. Wrench stood there, numb, solid, like a statue, hearing Zane's hopeless graons and wails of his best friend.

She had no idea what to do or say to comfort him. Instead, she cried, "_Someone help! Conner's dead!_" Zach and Jack burst into the room and gasped at the new color of the once pale creamy bathroom. When Dan came in, all he said was, "This is something that needs to be explained. But there is nothing to explain this here." His facial expression was blank and cold, and knelt down next to Conner's lifeless body. Dan ran his hand through Conner's brown hair, and sighed.

Wrench felt like she was going to be sick. Her stomach was doing flips at the sight of all the blood on the surfaces, and she felt a distant ache in her upper jaws. She clamped her teeth shut as her fangs extended reflexively, her muscles coiled and tight. She suddenly didn't care about Conner's dead body; the blood on the floor was inviting. It smelled delicious and sweet, like hot chocolate on a winter day. Wrench held her breath, but Conner's blood was intoxicating, already swimming her mind with thoughts of blood drinking and sex. That's how sweet the blood smelled.

Wrench gasped when her hand, pressed against the wall close to her, came up smeared in dark liquid. It was fresh, like it only happened a few moments ago. The boys were too distracted by Conner's body, so they didn't see Wrench's tongue flick out and lick the blood off her fingers hungrily.

Her fangs came out completely, and she felt the drive to grab one of the boys, drag them out to the hall, and feed.

Wrench fled form the room, flying out the window, morphing into a raven all they while.


	10. Chapter 10

~Wrench flapped her raven's wings harder, following the string trail of Power that spelled Damon Salvatore all over it's aura. Wrench hadn't had the slightest idea whom could've killed her best friend, Conner O'Donnel, and now she felt...emptier than she usually did. Conner had been her best bud since she had ever worked at the shop. And now...he was gone.

She felt all alone suddenly. Knowing her brothers were out there and killing people...she felt unsecure. Nervous. Scared.

And very, very angry.

Wrench couldn't follow Damon's trail of Power anymore. She dipped her beak at the ground. She landed softly, Power rippling through her body. Now on two feet, she walked over to a small creek trickling lightly, and sat down on a huge rock, knees pulled up to her chest.

She started to cry.

Wrench had hardly ever cried. She only did it to get rid of anger or sorrow, but she felt so alone and lost without Conner that she didn't have the guts to cry in front of the boys. She buried her head into her knees, soft sobs ripping from her throat. Conner had been like a big brother to her. He was always there to dry her tears, to make her laugh, to make her feel warm and happy when she needed it most. He had helped her through everything, and he caught her when she fell, like an angel catching a broken down dove. Not anymore.

Wrench had stopped her loud sobs, but she let her frame shake with loneliness, and she let more tears fall and crash onto the rock, moaning like a sick child. She rocked herself, not caring whom was watching. She wanted Martyl's arms around her, cradling her head against the old nanny's shoulder. Wrench wanted someone to comfort her. But, like it always has been, she didn't even get kind words to soothe her tortured mind.

Wrench had always remembered times where she had cried during the night when she was a mortal, and she had the covers up to her chin, shaking with grief and sorrow. Her despair would never be healed into happiness. Wrench had run away from Florence for a good reason. And now she was more depressed than ever. Not with Conner's death and the return of her brothers and Elena making it any better as well.

Good grief, her tortured life was being replayed all over again.

Wrench moaned again.

For hours, Wrench sat on that rock, moaning and weeping, watching the little stream flow by slowly, thinking of Martyl's sweet face and warm arms. She kept her thoughts strictly on Martyl's face, but her barrier in her mind would collapse now and then, and she felt numb whenever Conner's dead face floated around in her mind. She also felt little doses of Power hit her mind, but she numbed out everything in the world. She didn't even feel her body beginning to cramp up and get sore from sitting in that tight position for so long.

More hours passed, she was still sitting there when a small wind brushed the back on her neck behind her. Wrench didn't even wince when small bird feet landed on her shoulder. She felt probing in her mind, like fingers trying to find it's way into her thoughts.

_Tanya Mai?_

Wrench didn't move.

_Tanya Mai, what are you doing here?_

She didn't even blink.

_Tanya Mai. Look at me._

Nothing. But she knew who it was. Damon.

Damon, as a crow, bounded off her shoulder to stand in front of her, eye level to her sitting position. Wrench saw nothing but Conner's face. She winced.

_Tanya Mai. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be working with your so called "friends" and sweating yourself to death? _Well Damon was his usual sarcastic self.

Wrench flinched at his words, then moaned again, laying her face on her knees. She started to cry again. Damon's voice was silent, probably listening to his sister cry.

_Go away, you miserable son of a bitch. If you're not going to let me have a moment, I'll wring your neck. So leave me alone, _she sent, and stood up fluidly to walk away. A rush of wind made her look up at Damon's smirking eyes. He was leaning against a birch tree, in human form.

Wrench ignored him. She walked on, not really caring where she was going. Damon's hand flew up and gripped her shoulder lightly, and Wrench stopped in her tracks.

"Tanya Mai? Why are you way out here? I thought you're usually at the garage fixing cars," he said again, shifting out in front of her, looking at her straight in the eye.

Wrench saw nothing. She didn't even feel Damon's shaking hands on her shoulders. Damon was now sounding worried.

"Tanya Mai?"

Wrench, finally hearing past the odd ringing in her ears, slowly looked at him through crystal dotted lashes. She saw Damon's face go from sarcastic to slightly worried. Damon leaned in closer to see her more clearly. He stretched out his Power to feel her thoughts. He found a glitch in her mind, something troubling about her thoughts and...

Damon went flying toward the ground, shaking under the strain of Power Wrench casted towards him. The Power was hard and intense, burning every nerve in his body. He groaned and snarled under his force to release him from the pain, but even he, of all vampires, couldn't even break from of the burning force. It was like electrical wires had been plugged into his brain, shocking every pore painfully.

Wrench shocked him over and over again, almost smiling as he twitched in agony. Damon arched his back as pain spiked his spine, and he clutched his hands into claws.

After a few minutes, Wrench let him go. She snarled.

"Don't ever try to read my thoughts again. Or it'll be more painful next time you try," she hissed. Damon, looking shocked at his sister's new trick, flicked onto his feet and stared after her retreating back.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~When Wrench arrived at the shop, an ambulance was parked outside the main parking lot, wheeling a bag covered body away from the scene on a stretcher. Wrench flinched at the stale fragrance of blood and walked past Dan and Zach, talking to a couple of detectives. She walked up to Zane, whom had small tears running down his cheeks. His face was torn in grief, making Wrench's face fall even more. She knew how he was feeling right now. Wrench embraced him tightly, and he hugged back, sighing deeply into her hair. Jack joined in the eternal embrace, and soon Zach had his arms around Zane. Tanner was the only one whom didn't care about the recent loss. He leaned against the door frame that led into the upstairs dorms, and he looked...blank. His face wore no expression, just an empty face and empty eyes.

Wrench clutched a muscular arm tightly-she didn't even know whom she was holding anymore; the whole hug was a bunch of matter and buff bodies-and she growled under her breath. Tanner turned on his heel and walked away.

After a few moments of hugging and silence, all the boys let go, but Zane kept an arm around Wrench's shoulders. She glimpsed him shaking slightly, his eyes on the ground. Wrench squeezed his arm, soothing his tight muscles.

Zane smiled sadly, but shuffled away slowly, shoulders shaking with sobs.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Ten thirty had finally struck when Wrench had dressed in sweat pants and a loose long sleeved shirt. She stuffed a pillow under her arm and grabbed two blankets before she tip toed on her bare feet and stepped out of her dorm door, locking it.

She turned for Zane's door before another body slammed into her. She dropped her stuff and held up her fists defensively. The dark shadow in the hallway slung back an arm and was about to snap it forward until Wrench's sensitive eyes sharpened. She caught Jack's fist like lightening, and she hissed, "Dude! It's just me, Wrench." Jack relaxed his posture, shoulders slumping forward. He had a pillow and a quilt in his hands when he stood up. His chest was bare, showing sprigs of chest hair and perfectly chiseled muscles.

Wrench blinked. "Where are you going?" she asked, but Jack asked her the same question.

She answered, "I think Zane wants some company since he lost something important. So I think I'm just gonna...what?" Jack was giving her a huge eyed look at the thought of Wrench in Zane's room. She shook her black curls. "Jack, it's nothing like that. I'll sleep in the chair or something." Wrench remembered the big comfy arm chair in Zane's room last time she was in there. She had to give him some papers for a semi truck project, and she was allowed to sit in the big chair. The chair was navy blue and soft like velvet, and it felt like sitting on pillows. It was very comforting.

To her surprise, Jack nodded. "Yeah. Since I'm his brother...you know...I wanted to help him, too. So...yeah," he stuttered. Wrench had finally bent down to retrieve her dropped items, and stood up. She and Jack went to Zane's dorm; right across from Wrench's. She quietly knocked on the door.

She faintly heard foot steps-more like feet shuffling slowly-and Zane's tear streaked face popped through the door. He tried to smile. "Hey guys. Whatcha doing out there at this time of night?" he asked through a choked voice. He sniffled, and wiped away tears and snot on his face.

_Poor guy_, Wrench thought sympathetically. Jack answered for both of them. "We know you're very upset right now, brother. We just wanted to know if you wanted some company while you slept."

Zane's face looked shocked for a second, but he frowned, considering while he scratched his jaw. Wrench thought he would decline, but he nodded.

"I'd love some company."

He opened the door wider, and Wrench stepped through, feeling the warm air envelope her as soon as her bare feet touched the carpet. Jack moved past her to sit in the window seat opposite the room, and Zane walked back over to his bed, sitting down with a big huff. Wrench didn't feel like being rude, so she waited until Zane said, "You can sleep in the chair, Tanya. I don't really mind." Zane looked tired and pale.

Tanya came to sit by him on the bed. "Are you sure you don't mind?" she asked gently, watching new tears brim his red eyes. Zane let his head fall onto Wrench's shoulder, taking a really shaky breath. "I don't really care," he muffled into the hair of her shoulder. Wrench stroked his silky black hair, running her fingers through it's softness. Jack joined her in rubbing Zane's back. Zane started to weep again, and Wrench began to say things like, "Oh, Zane. Please don't cry. C'mon, man. Don't cry."

Jack and Wrench comforted Zane as best as they could, but Zane just wouldn't stop. Wrench ended up crying herself, and she let herself cry, too. In fact, all of them cried together, Zane the most, and Wrench because she knew what it was like to Zane.

Zane finally settled down, and Wrench was now laying comfortably in big chair, Jack in the window seat, and Zane was breathing deeply to try and stay silent under the thick covers of his bed. Wrench snuggled up underneath the two blankets she kept tucked under her chin, and fell asleep listening to poor Zane's and Jack's sobs.

**A/N:I know. So sad. Poor Zane. AND!!!!! Tell me who you guys think killed Conner O'Donnell!!!! Reviews apreciated!!!!!**

**Plus:If anyone tells me who killed Conner and is right, then I'll just have to answer any questions you have about my story if you have any at all, like if you have no idea about some parts... ****:-P**


	11. Chapter 11

~The next morning was slow and agonizing. Zane had asked Dan to take the day off and just mope in his room all day, and Wrench declared she had something important to do. Dan had said that today wasn't a good day to be working anyway. All the boys certainly had changed, especially since Zane was the one who was so low under the weather today. Jack was next to Zane all day, always wanting to do something for him. Wrench stayed out of his way, saying she didn't want to be in his personal bubble.

But Zane at one point didn't want Wrench to go. She simply gripped his shoulders and said gently, "Zane, I've got some really important business. I have to get it done." So while she yanked on a pair of dark jeans with Zane's back turned-she didn't dare get ready in her own bathroom; she was terrified it'd smell like Conner's blood though it wans't even the right bathroom-she told Zane she had something important.

But Zane shook his hair. "But...I love Jack, but you're the only one I need right now," he complained. Wrench had strapped on her favorite boots, black chucks with silver buckles around the ankles, and popped her head through her black hoodie. Wrench knew she looked good in bright colors, but she preferred to wear black since it fit her well. The boys back then used to tease her about being goth, but she hardly looked goth.

Zane's cheeks started to get wet again. Wrench felt so bad. But she desperately wanted to do this. She hugged him around the thick waist, and Zane's hands were holding her neck.

Wrench left Zane in her bedroom, and now she was walking toward the back fence separating the woods from the shop's grounds.

A strong push if Power made her trip over her own feet, and she crashed to the ground. And something white flashed in front of her vision. She froze, not knowing exactly what had happened.

_Power can be from anything, anyone, anytime,_ she thought, remembering words that an old priest used to say to her in Spain before she left for the New World. Wrench whirled onto her feet, and decided to follow the line of Power that it came from. From experience, Wrench knew that when someone with Power uses it from a distance, no matter how far away they are, they leave an invisible trail of stale Power, and even if the person walked away, the Power trail would be like a string to the person, always following them until the Power faded. But when Power was casted, it fades quickly, so Wrench changed into a raven and followed the Power as best as she could.

The Power didn't feel like Damon's; it felt more powerful. Wrench followed it, senses and mind thrown outward to feel the Power's tickling feeling until she saw a black crow flying toward the high school from a huge house with an on-going party. The crow was being followed by Elena Gilbert, which made Wrench's anger rise.

Wrench sensed something in Damon. She reached out unnoticed and tickled his mind with her mental fingers. She saw Stefan in his mind, Stefan laying on the ground, a stake above his chest...oh boy.

Wrench suddenly felt that maybe she should help..._wait a moment, Tanya Mai Salvatore! What the hell are you thinking?!_

But still...She rolled her eyes, then took off after Damon.

Damon's thoughts were mirrored in the back of the school. Stefan was laying across the grass with a Mr. Forbes hovering over him, a stake high above his chest, and he looked weak and pale. Elena and Damon were already grappling with the men. Caroline Forbes was huddles against one of the dark cars, and she started to whimper.

Wrench dove from the air, shifting her body into long lean muscles...a tail...four paws...whiskers...the men were shocked when the great hunting cat came plummeting down from the sky.

Everyone froze. Even Elena and Damon, shaped like a wolf, stared wide eyed as Wrench stalked forward on her paws, growling low and menacing. She crept forward, until her paws were on the snowy grass in front of Mr. Forbes. He aimed a rifle at her face, and she snapped at his hand, blood spraying as she took off a finger. Or two. The rifle bounced across the grass. He screamed at the agony, staring at the leopard with complete shock and pain. Wrench snarled, and arched her back.

Wrench bared her cat teeth and crouched low, backing up slowly. She placed her paws over Stefan's shaking body, her body hovered over Stefan protectively. One of them whispered, "Where did that leopard come from?" and Wrench recognized him as Mr. Bennett, Vicki Bennett's father. Damon had silently stalked over and glowered next to Wrench, growling chainsaw like. Both animals were snarling and baring sharp teeth when someone finally yelled, "Everybody stop! Just stop everything, right where you are!"

Wrench jumped at the sharp voice-she had no idea who said it-and she disappeared into the shadows when a car swiveled into the parking lot. Damon followed her, and both vampires took form, Elena jumping into the shadows with them.

Alaric Saltzman, Bonnie McCullough, Meredith Sulez, and Matt Honeycutt ran out of Alaric's car, stopping in front of the group of men. Bonnie was small and with tranculent skin and shiny brown eyes, her hair a small mass of red curls. Meredith was tall with dark hair and thick dark lashes, and had luminous tan skin and shiny green eyes. Matt had the All-American guy looks, like blond hair and blue eyes, with a square jaw and a dark tan.

Alaric was someone Wrench had never seen before. He had sandy blond hair and muddy brown eyes, dark skin, and a lean body. His eyes were fixed on Mr. Smallwood, father of Tyler Smallwood. Alaric and Mr. Smallwood were arguing about the situation, and the three hiding vampires listened with out hearing much.

Eventually, the men departed, and Caroline followed slowly, shaking slightly. Alaric was left standing in grass alone with Matt and Bonnie and Meredith behind him. When the men were gone, Elena shot out of the shadows, and fell to Stefan's side, a worried expression crossing her pretty little features. Damon had disappeared to somewhere else. Wrench, feeling cautious, stayed cloaked in the shadows around her.

Elena was gushing, "Stefan, are you alright? Did they hurt you?" while smoothing back his hair.

Wrench rolled her eyes, and watched Stefan clutched her hand to steady himself. He turned to Alaric. "Thank you. Why?"

Alaric nodded, and Bonnie said, "He's on our side, Stefan."

Suddenly, Damon's silhouette formed out of nowhere, and said, "I'm not the only you should thank, little brother." Damon's coal eyes turned to Wrench hiding in the shadows. She flinched, knowing Damon was going to say something like that and tell Stefan it was Wrench whom saved his pathetic life.

Wrench stepped out of the shadows. Bonnie's eyes and even Meredith's eyes popped out of their sockets. Matt and Alaric gasped, and Wrench, feeling offended, said defensively, "What? Am I the new freak show around here now?"

Elena cranked her head around, and gave Damon a questioning stare. He shrugged and looked at Wrench. She rolled her eyes again. "I was on my way to talk to you, Damon, but I peeked into your thoughts and saw poor, poor Stefan about to get staked. So I followed you and Gilbert here." She flicked a hand toward Elena and Stefan.

Damon smirked. "And you think I'm the only one who follows people around?" he muttered into her ear when he walked by. She knocked him off his feet by shocking him sharply, and Elena and the rest of the group was staring at her. Damon flitted onto his feet. Wrench crossed her arms over her chest.

Elena finally spoke to be rid of the high tension among the two Salvatore siblings as they faced each other off. "Maybe we should talk somewhere more private," she suggested.

Alaric nodded. "I've got my keys with me. We can go to the history classroom," he said, starting toward the school's front doors.

Wrench shook her head. "I have better things to do than follow you people around. I'm outta here." She turned on her heel and walked away. Elena ran up to her and grabbed Wrench's arm. Wrench spun around and scratched Elena's cheek. Elena gasped and fell to the ground. Blood dripped from her cheek, and Stefan bent over her, touching her golden hair.

"I dare you to touch me again, bitch!" she spat, hissing. Alaric got in between them and pushed against Wrench's chest.

"Hey. No fighting. Please, just listen to me and the others. You don't have to participate. Just listen. Please," he said gently. Wrench was gazing at Elena venomously, eyes shooting fury. Elena winced at the piercing daggers Wrench threw at her.

Wrench shrugged off Alaric's hand, and stared at him. "Why should I? I'm nothing but a whisper in the wind. Everyone would forget about me eventually."

Bonnie came forward slowly. "Please, Wrench. Just this once," she murmured, remembering Wrench's threat a few days ago about her name. Wrench turned her stare to Bonnie, and Bonnie visibly flinched at her cold stare. Bonnie blushed, and looked away shyly. She even backed up to get away from Wrench's rolling fury.

Wrench crossed her arms. "I'll do it; under one condition," she said, looking at Damon. He gazed back, waiting.

"One question," she started. "Did you kill Conner O'Donnell?"

Damon didn't even blink. "No. I don't even know who that is," he said unemotionally. Wrench felt like falling to the ground and laugh with joy. But she still needed to find the mystery out. She looked at Stefan and Elena. They both shook there heads, black waves mingling with golden water.

Meredith stepped forward. "Let's go into the classroom," she said. Everyone started for the double glass doors that led to the front hall of the school. The air was suddenly not so calm and cold like it had been a few moments ago. The oxygen now smelled tainted, like stale Power had been spilled into the air. Damon, Stefan, Wrench, and Elena all stopped and stiffened. The mortals stopped and watched the immortals look around and sniff the air. Stefan and Elena hovered around each other, and Wrench and Damon became defensive and crouched low. Wrench reached out with her mind and realized that the stale Power had that same vibe as the trail of Power that had knocked her off her feet back at the shop.

"Let's go inside," Damon said quietly, and tugged on Wrench's arms. She froze at the touch.

But before she left, a white owl stood on a branch watching her with it's blue eyes. She hissed at it and followed Damon into the building.

**A/N: I know that this chapter wasn't so good, and it doesn't really explain much. But we are getting close to solving the mystery of Conner O'Donnell. And I forgot to say something. If you haven't noticed, this story follows the original Vampire Diaries stories, but I added this story with it. So if you are reading this and haven't read the Vampire Diaries books, then STOP READING!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!**

**~Thanx for your guy's time!!!!**

**~vampworm**


	12. Chapter 12

~Wrench had thought the history classroom would be filled with lots of pictures of Egyptian kings and the American Revolution. It was nothing but bare white walls and five empty chairs. Stefan and Elena were sitting in the cushioned chair behind Alaric's desk, while Damon lounged behind the chair of Bonnie. Meredith and Matt took their seats beside Bonnie. Wrench lingered in the back of the room where she stood with a tense body next to the door, closing it slowly with the heel of her foot. Alaric sat down in one of the plastic chairs and started to explain how he was an expert in psychology and how he studied the victims of vampires.

Wrench wasn't listening at all. She was staring at Elena with fury bubbling up inside her as Elena dabbed Stefan's head with a piece of cotton where a concussion now was. Instead of listening to Alaric, she let her mind float around in the clouds again.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~The gardens of the Salvatore house was the most beautiful thing Tanya Mai had always seen. She loved the gardens. She loved the smell of the roses and the lilac surrounding the boxed hedges and fountain. She loved the little trickle of water as Martyl patiently watered the potted freesia and white lilies. The apple and orange trees bordered the grounds and Tanya Mai spotted Katherine dancing underneath a stray lemon tree with Stefan watching. It tore at Tanya Mai's heart.

Tanya Mai was seated in a content position in her chair as she faced the Duke's wife. The little iron table was seated in front of the rolling green hills sat under the eaves of the big house. The sun shone brightly today, soft light rays touching everything in sight. Little pastries and teas along with Martyl's special brew of tea was being sipped and stirred as Tanya Mai added more pure sugar. The Duke's wife, Mary Ellen, was young and full of health. Her lovely blond hair fell lightly past her shoulders, but it's color was honey; not golden like Katherine's. Her green eyes were like jade gems set inside sockets of creamy golden skin. Mary Ellen had a white smile and peach colored lips. Just now, those peach lips sipped at Martyl's secret brew of tea, and Mary Ellen smiled.

"Delicate and sweet. Like honeysuckle and herbs mixed together," she complimented to Martyl, her English accent perfectly fitting her features. Tanya Mai tried to smile back, but it was hard. Katherine had been bugging Tanya Mai all day, and Tanya Mai wasn't getting any more comfortable at home than she anticipated.

Mary Ellen noticed Tanya Mai's usual quietness. Mary Ellen frowned. "Miss Salvatore? You seem...reserved. Anything the matter, dear?" she asked gently. Tanya Mai was watching Katherine pick up her skirts and dance along in Stefan's arms.

Mary Ellen patted Tanya Mai's hand. "Child?" Her gaze followed Tanya Mai's. Tanya Mai jerked in her seat, said a polite, "I apologize, Miss Vondeau." Then gingerly sipped her tea. Tanya Mai had hoped she would be alone today since it was Sunday, after church, but Mary Ellen had requested a tea meeting in the gardens with Tanya Mai. Only.

But the mistress was so sweet and kind, she even let some of the servants take a break and play and talk in the gardens while the two wealthy ladies chatted.

Mary Ellen sat back in her chair, smiling as a little toddler walked up to her. Mary Ellen picked up the child and seated the child on her lap.

Tanya Mai tried a smile again. "I can see you have such a passion for children," she observed, hoping to not be rude. The mistress thought the opposite. Mary Ellen had lived with her and her husband for about a week now, and she and Tanya Mai had grown close, though Tanya Mai had a vibe for shutting off everyone and everything.

Mary Ellen smiled brightly. "Yes. Someday, when my husband agrees, I want to have a few of my own," she laughed along with Tanya Mai. "But not yet. He's too busy with his job and loyalty to the king and queen of England."

A charming laugh came from behind Tanya Mai. Damon was standing behind her, listening to their conversation. He wore a frilly shirt made of the finest silk imported, and his pants were fitted loosely over his long legs. His grin stayed on as he observed Mary Ellen.

Mary Ellen gave Damon a grin. "Hello, Mr. Salvatore. And how has your afternoon have been?" Tanya Mai's happy face fell into one of sadness, and she looked away, munching on a pastry glazed in chocolate.

Damon chuckled again. "I have been out in the stables riding, and I just finished my lesson in etiquette with my brother, Stefan. Which whom, I need to speak with," he finished. He didn't even look Tanya Mai's way. Didn't even see her.

Mary Ellen pointed to where Stefan and Katherine were still whirling and smiling. Tanya Mai choked quietly on a sob. They never did that to her. Damon, without even noticing her, he brushed past Tanya Mai and walked to where his brother was. Tanya Mai let a few tears fall down her cheeks.

Martyl had come over and tried soothing the princess by stroking her hair. Mary Ellen was too busy with the child in her arms to notice. Martyl gave Tanya Mai one last pat on the hand before she set off to talk to her close friend, Germina.**(A/N: Made up the name "Germina.")**

Mary Ellen let the child onto his feet, watched him waddle away, and turned back to Tanya Mai. Tanya Mai had now grown depressed and alone, slowly chewing on another pastry. The Duke's wife's brows furrowed.

"Tanya Mai? You look sick. What is the matter?" Mary Ellen asked gently. Mary Ellen had tried all week to get Tanya Mai talking, but Tanya Mai was in her usual state of silence, eyes to the ground and manner quiet and slow.

Tanya Mai sat up straighter and lifted the corners of her lips a little bit. "I am fine. Perfect. Just a little bit tired," she lied. She sipped her tea slowly.

Mary Ellen wasn't convinced. "Tanya Mai, I must know what's wrong. I can't watch you walk around this house upset and depressed looking. Please, child. You can tell me anything," she murmured, leaning over to pat her hand. She sounded like a mother. Tanya Mai's mother before she died.

Tanya Mai looked at her questionably. "I am perfectly fine, Mistress. Please, don't worry about me," she reassured Mary Ellen. She retruned to sipping her tea quietly, while th emistress was still staring at her, worried expression crossing her face.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench was yanked out of her reverie as someone was calling her name. Bonnie. She focused her eyes on Bonnie. Bonnie asked her question she'd probably been asking all the time when Wrench was daydreaming.

"...and we need some help with our plan. You with us?" Everyone was staring at Wrench. As if right on cue, Wrench's Sidekick started to go off, tinkling the tune "My Last Breath" from Evanescence. She pulled it out and peeked at the caller I.D. Zane was trying to tell her to come back.

Wrench snorted. "Well, this has been a wonderful meeting, but I only came here to listen. And I did. So...I'm gone," she said sarcastically. She opened the door to walk out, stuffing her cellphone into her pocket.

Damon's hand caught her arm before her foot set out the door frame. She snarled and yanked her arm out of his grip, hissing in his face. Damon's face was unreadable.

"You have to really listen to us this time, Tanya Mai. We really need help. We can't succeed without an extra immortal with Power," he murmured. This time he bared his own teeth as Wrench tried to over Power him again like before in the parking lot. He pushed back with his mental thoughts.

Elena stepped in. "Wrench, c'mon. We can use a big hand," she said with voice of command. She stepped around the teacher's desk and stood in front of Wrench.

"Get out of my face, bitch. I don't want to feel your weak presence anymore than you do. Now get away from me," she warned. She used her own voice of command to warn Elena to keep back.

Elena shook her head. "No. You don't scare me," she spit, holding that lovely little head up high. Wrench had the bad urge to snap that head to the side and watch her twitch. She guessed Elena wanted to do something similar to Wrench.

Wrench glared at Elena hard, lips twitching when Elena flinched at her look. Wrench reached out with her mind and shocked Elena. Only this was harder than the shocks she delivered to Damon earlier. Elena flew backwards and slammed onto her back, wincing from the blow. Stefan came up and snarled in front of Wrench. She slapped him across the cheek.

"Once again, I hate it when people get in my face. And I'm not going to help this blond bitch anymore or anytime. She doesn't deserve my help," Wrench muttered to Stefan, and when Damon opened his mouth to say something, she smacked him as well. He looked bewildered. And angry.

"And don't you try and hypnotize me either. I'll die the next time I see her begging me to help out. I'm outta here."

Elena attacked her.

Wrench was surprised, but she knew Elena would try something like that. Wrench twirled, whipped up her hand, and choked Elena until all air was gone. Elena was gasping, and Stefan was yelling, "Tanya Mai! You let her go now!" Wrench shoved with her mind and body, and Elena went crashing into Stefan's waiting arms, both tumbling onto the floor.

Tears were falling down Wrench's cheeks while she was defending herself, and, wiping them away quickly, she dashed for the door. but Damon caught her again. This time he locked his arms around her waist.

"Wrench, just listen! You are a very strong vampire with great Powers. If you help us, we'll give you something in return! Promise!"

His words were like jolts of shock. Wrench stopped squirming. She actually listened this once, hearing his words ring around in her head. But she wriggled out of his grip and stared. "Are you crazy?!" she shouted, making everyone in the room flinch. "Five hundred years of silence and now you're trying to be my best friend and offer me something you should've given me along time ago, Damon. Why now and not five hundred years ago?!"

Damon and Stefan exchanged looks and frowned. Stefan looked sympathetic; Damon just looked confused. The mortals were watching the entire exchange quietly, nothing but pure shock and confusion crossing each face. Elena just looked between Damon, Stefan, and Wrench.

"Let us make up for it, Wrench. We won't hurt you anymore. Okay?" Stefan said gently. He reached out and tried to softly stroke her arm. Wrench pulled away. But her next words proved her anger otherwise.

"Fine. But if I don't get what I want, then I get to kill her," she said venomously, pointing at Elena.

Both vampire brothers looked bewildered. But their heads slowly nodding not that even Elena or the mortals saw them nodding. But Wrench didn't even feel like smiling evilly at the sentence that Elena. She crossed her arms over her chest, staring straight at Elena coldly.

_Well, hell,_ she was thinking bitterly. _Elena's plan better be good. Or else...I get to keep her lapis lazuli ring._

The rest of the plan was explained by a dazed looking Elena, still wincing from Wrench's blow to the head by her shock of Power.


	13. Chapter 13

~Wrench was now patrolling the school grounds, watching all the dancers for the Snow Homecoming Dance show up arm in arm, walking in heels or ballet flats, wearing colorful gowns and dresses. Wrench saw Vicki Bennett strolling up to the double doors to purchase her ticket.

Wrench looked up at the roof where Damon was perched on his heels, examining everything that stood or moved in front of him. She nudged his mind, and he looked down at her, black eyes reflecting the empty sky between each star. She nodded toward Vicki, and sent, _Vicki Bennett._

Damon nodded and bounded off the roof, unseen figure stalking up to Wrench. He used the dark, sinister shadows that stretched out across the snow to cover himself, and he stopped next to Wrench. His long arms were folded against his chest.

"You sure it's Vicki?" he asked casually, eyes on Wrench. Wrench had her eyes focused on Vicki as Vicki stood and laughed next to Caroline Forbes. The girl's laugh was too high pitched and forced, like Vicki was paid by her parents to act normal and to enjoy herself.

Wrench nodded. "Yup. Your little damsel told me what she looked like. So I can tell whom she is," she answered, her voice barely above a whisper. Damon nodded again, and watched as Stefan, patrolling the football fields and the back buildings, gave Damon and Wrench a nod, signaling everything was clear. Both immortals flicked their hands with understanding, then Wrench went back to watching the troubled Vicki.

Damon sighed. "So how have your last five hundred years have been for you? They were quite slow for me," he asked as zeroed in on Vicki himself.

Wrench's voice held no emotion. "That doesn't concern you."

He chuckled. "I would still like to know," he pushed. Wrench didn't say anything for what seemed like a long time. When she did, her eyes were blank but brimmed with tears.

"I suffered."

Damon let the two words sink in, and he stood there lounging quietly. Vicki stumbled as she walked into the gymnasium holding the dance, following Caroline clumsily.

Damon spoke. "I never knew," he said, watching Wrench's eyes grow dark and shadowed. "How did you suffer?"

Wrench answered slowly. And painfully. "You're precious princess who changed me, Katherine. I thought you saw what was really inside her. But I guess she was too beautiful on the outside to reveal her true ugliness on the inside."

Stefan had now joined them, walking up slowly. He had over heard her last words and frowned. "And how did you know she was ugly on the inside?" His voice had always been calm and gentle, but he sounded cold and dangerous. _Way to go, Stefan,_ Wrench thought smirking to herself.

Wrench looked at him. "Wow. I never you two are so blind when it comes to blond women," she snarled, smiling so sarcastically she could have beaten Damon at a contest for it. Damon and Stefan stiffened.

Wrench's favorite song, "Forever Gone, Forever You" from Evanescence, started playing, and she started to sing along with it, softly mouthing the words with slow lips and a delicate voice that could go higher than Amy Lee's could. She had no idea that her brothers were listening to her quiet song, and they both exchanged surprised glances.

_-"Walking away, I see the pain;_

_-You put me through;_

_-Lost in your game to change the same;_

_-Forever gone, forever you..."_

Both vampire brothers stared in amazement. Her voice was silvery and sweet, smooth and never broke in pitch. The sound sailed away with the wind, making the last note echo around the air and float off to nowhere in particular.

"Wow, Tanya," Stefan breathed. "Your voice is amazing." His green eyes were huge and focused on his sister.

Wrench's phone rang, and she looked at the caller I.D. Meredith had given Wrench her number in case of something important.

Before she walked away, she turned her head and said, "You should've said that to me along time ago, Stefan." Cloaked in darkness, she made her way into the building where the queen bitch was waiting.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Elena Gilbert)

~Elena didn't like Stefan's sister Tanya Mai at all. The vampire was cruel and selfish; with a bad reputation to follow it. Meredith had something important to tell Tanya though, and Tanya Mai, who preferred her nickname "Wrench"walked in, and shot bullets, rockets and daggers in Elena's direction withe her eyes. Alaric fingered Wrench to come over to where he was leanign over a map of the entire school. Elena watched Wrench with fascination, though. Wrench was a hot head, but she had one of the quickest and fastest minds Elena had ever encountered. She didn't take any crap from her brothers, and she knew the town better than Elena had ever thought. So she had to admire Wrench for her quickness, not just as a vampire, but as a person as well.

Damon and Stefan walked in behind her, watching her every step toward the teacher's desk, wary of Wrench's actions earlier when Elena tried to attack her. Wrench simply ignored her, and watched Alaric's finger move across the map. Meredith was also watching, every now and then looking up at Wrench's vampiric looks. Bonnie, however, couldn't take her eyes off Wrench.

Bonnie was looking at Wrench with big brown eyes and a shocked face. Elena frowned, not really understanding why Bonnie was looking at her like that. Bonnie just kept staring at Wrench from a distance. Elena shook her head, and watched Damon and Stefan step up behind Wrench and gaze thoughtfully at the map.

Elena didn't want to hear anything from Wrench's mouth, but she listened to what she had to say about getting candles from the science lab.

"Sure, I don't mind. I can go get them," she was saying, nodding her head. Elena cocked her head to the side, and noticed how curly Wrench's raven black hair was.

_It's hard ot get those kinds of thick, shiny, twirly curls,_ Elena thought, suddenly wanting to reach out and pull her fingers through the long locks of shiny hair. Elena's hair was a soft shine, but Wrench's hair had that wonderful shine to it that it looked almost fake. Rainbow highlights fell on her hair when the lighting glistened on her head.

Elena shook her head and resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall. She had a such mixed feelings about the immortal girl, but it was impossible to get even two feet near her. Let alone get to know her.

Elena watched with a fascination as Wrench bolted from the room on quick, graceful feet. She was gone in a flash. But was back in the same second with three white candles in her hand.

She walked over on light toes and handed Bonnie the candles. Wrench walked by Elena, and Elena averted her eyes down so Wrench wouldn't see her looking at Wrench, but Elena looked up through her lashes and kept staring at Wrench.

Now Elena had a good look and feel of Wrench up close. Elena saw a real close resemblance in the Salvatore siblings. Wrench had Stefan's high cheekbones and Damon's rainbow highlights. She even had the deep look in her eyes like Stefan and she expressed her words and emotions like Damon did. But the rest was her own looks. She had long, black, curly hair that cascaded to below her waist, and her lips were thick and luscious. Her lashes were as long as Elena's, and she had that extra look in her eyes that said determination and courage.

Wrench's eyes were even more exotic than Stefan's. Her eyes were the perfect shade of chocolate, deep and dark and brooding. Around her irises, tiny little red sparklets in her eyes looked like rubies set around the irises.

Her personality was so much different from Stefan's and Damon's, too. She seemed...far off, lonely, angry, and even depressed. Through Elena's anger toward the girl, she sympathized when at one point Wrench's eyes aged and looked hooded, hurt flashing inside her eyes when she looked at her brother Stefan when Stefan was stroking Elena's hair and gazing at Elena with dreamy eyes.

_Rubies...set in chocolate,_ Elena thought with wonder, gazing at the corner of Wrench's eye.

Wrench suddenly blinked, while watching Bonnie with interest, and slowly turned to look at Elena with piercing eyes. Elena turned away and blushed. Stefan noticed and chuckled.

Alaric had asked Wrench to set up some chairs around in a circle for everyone to sit, and to light some candles. As everyone sat in there seats, Wrench went around the circle, touching all the candle's wicks with a lighter she had produced from her pocket. She was the last to sit as she brought a flame to her own candle. The immortal girl was emotionless as she did all this, doing things quickly and fluidly like she did it all the time. Like she wanted to get it all done fast and quick before she had to live with more pain.

Wrench's face was lit by the flaming flame of the candle, dark shadows dancing across her features and underneath her eyes. Wrench was watching Bonnie as Bonnie focused on her candle flame. After a few reluctant moments, Elena turned her attention to Bonnie, who's face had gone completely smooth and blank.

Elena jumped forward and asked, "Where can we find the Other Power?" And Bonnie simply looked at every face in the circle and, standing up, said, "Come and see."

Wrench was the first to blow out her candle and follow Bonnie out the door without a word as Bonnie stood up. The other vampires followed Bonnie, the mortals behind them, and soon they were out in the parking lot with Bonnie standing next to Alaric's car.

"I think we'll all need to go in two cars each. Wrench, you rid ewith me and Bonnie, and those three," he suggested, inclining a head toward the three other vampires, but Wrench was shaking her curls.

"I'll take my own car. I don't feel comfortable right now, but I'll follow you guys wherever she wants us to go," Wrench said with no expression or emotion. Not another word was said as she stalked over to her big dark red Hummer and climbed inside, starting up her engine.

Everyone followed her example and Elena was sitting between Damon and Stefan in the back of Alaric's car, Bonnie in the front seat next to Alaric. Elena gazed behind her. Wrench's big Hummer was trailing Alaric's car, and over the painful sting of the car's head lights, Elena caught a glimpse of Wrench's face; still no sign of emotion.

After a few minutes of silence, Elena leaned forward and realized where they were going. The bridge to the cemetery was gone, but the new bridge led right up to the old tombs of Honoria and Thomas Fell where Tyler Smallwood had once tried to assault Elena just a few months ago.

Both cars parked next to the entrance to the tombs, and Bonnie steadily got out, and, as if she was like a flash of lightening, Wrench was right there to walk next to Bonnie. Bonnie turned to her and smiled. Everyone stopped to stare at Bonnie's hand, as it raised to Wrench's cheek and stroked it lightly. Frowning, Wrench watched Bonnie's lips move slightly, saying something so soft Elena didn't hear it. then Bonnie's face turned blank again and she continued her walk up to the tomb. Wrench stood there looking so shocked and confused it was almost funny. She followed Bonnie anyway. The old crpyt was dark and sinister, cobwebs dangling in all corners and ugly spiders scrambling away fromt eh dakr stalking of th efour vampires.

_Even spiders are afriad of vampires,_ Elena said to herself.

That was when Elena realized that Honoria's tomb looked so odd. The lid was out of place. Before anyone realized why Wrench and Elena were staring at the tomb, both girls said,

"This thing opens."

**A/N: HEYYYYY!!!!! Another quick shout out. Me and my friend are starting our own story on a site called "" and the story is caleld "Daimond Sapphire." I wanted to post it here on Fanfiction, but my friend has issues with fanfiction, so plz visit and both me and my friend will be much thanked.**


	14. Chapter 14

~Wrench was so angry when Alaric and Bonnie pleaded her to help them get rid of some sort of Power that was causing trouble around town. She wanted to crawl under a rock and keen like a dying animal. Now she knew how Zane felt when he lost his best friend.

Meredith had called in Wrench to talk to her about how they needed to protect the school gymnasium. When she walked in with her hopes of getting let off easily down, Elena Gilbert and Bonnie were all looking at her strangely. Bonnie with shock; Elena with fury. Good. She needed to hate Wrench anyway.

Alaric and Meredith were trying too hard to get Wrench involved in this. They gave her a few tips and pointers when they were guarding the school, and Wrench held up her hand and said, "I've lived for five hundred years. I think I know what to do without messing with poor blondie's up too much." Elena gave her the evil glare when Wrench walked by.

Yet, Elena couldn't keep her eyes off the immortal girl. Her crystal blue eyes were glues to Wrench, and Wrench gave her the glare that said, "Go stare at someone else, bitch." Bonnie was the only one whom Wrench never minded stared at her opened mouthed. Wrench just had no idea why Bonnie would be staring at her.

Just being around her brothers was so hard on Wrench. Stefan still gazed at Elena with those big green eyes, and he didn't even talk to Wrench the whole time she was in the classroom. Even Damon seemed content with just watching everyone and smirking. Wrench half-listened to all the things the mortals were telling her. She just kept on a good poker face and walked around the room like the fragile little girl she supposed to act like.

Memories of the way her brothers treated her back then brought tears to her eyes, and her face cracked a little bit when she was placing chairs in a circle in the midst of the room.

In the middle of setting up chairs, she had a brief flashback of when Stefan rejected her there and in front of Katherine.

Tanya Mai had asked her brother to dance with her in her hour of learning to dance. Katherine, sitting in a chair next to Giusseppe, Tanya Mai's father, was watching with satisfaction.

Her instructor, his name was forgotten, was teaching Damon how to hold a lady when dancing properly, and Stefan and Tanya Mai listened intently and watched every move and placement of the hands.

When it was time to practice, Tanya Mai had grabbed Stefan's arm and said with a small smile, "Please, let us dance together, Stefan. I have no partner," she said, gesturing where Damon had his hands around a pretty little servant.

Stefan stuttered, "Uh, well, I..." He looked at Katherine with want, and he turned back to his sister. "I want to do it with Katherine today, my sister. I'm sorry."

Tanya Mai wasn't having any of it. She yanked on his arm back. "Stefan, she isn't even in these lessons today. And you never dance with me. Please, just for today," she begged, but she already saw Katherine walk over on steady feet toward Stefan.

"Look, Tanya Mai..." he started, but Katherine interrupted. On purpose.

"He said no, you little bitch. Now go away and leave the dancing floor to the real dancers, not rejects like you," Katherine snarled at her, then forced a confused yet dazzled Stefan into a dance. They both twirled and smiled at each other, Stefan oblivious to Katherine's snappy tone toward Tanya Mai. Even Damon was too bored looking to ask Tanya Mai to dance.

Tanya Mai stood off to the sidelines, watching with dread horror at Katherine, then, with a quiet sob, picked up her skirts and raced out of the room. No one noticed.

Back in reality, Wrench had finished setting up the chairs and now held a lighter to each of the group memeber's candle wick, watching a soft flame flap on each wick. She didn't look at Elena when she walked by. Nor did her brothers say anything to her.

She sat down in her seat, and, lighting her own candle, focused on Bonnie, whose plan was to go into a trance so the group can find where the Other Power is coming from. Wrench had her eyes on Bonnie the entire time, watching the small girl's movements. Bonnie had an aura about her that seemed strange and new to Wrench. Her aura was deep blue, with small little flutters of gold woven within the blue. The gold was significant. Power was inside of Bonnie. But Bonnie wasn't a vampire.

Wrench thought through her old memories of whom else in the world had Power other than vampires. While in Scotland when she had run away from home, before she had boarded a ship to the New World, an old mountain man had taught her about her vampiric abilities. But she had asked, "Is there anyone else out there with a certain Power like what I possess?"

The mountain man, a wise man in his forties and a gray beard, smiled gently. "Yes. They are called, 'Druids.' They have powers that sometimes confuses them with witches." Wrench smiled at the gentle laugh that rumbled deep in his chest. "But you're a vampire, my dear. Not a druid. But you can tell they have Power by simply studying there auras."

Wrench jumped at the old mountain man's last words. _You can tell they have Power by reading simply studying there auras. _And stared at the little red haired girl.

Wrench had never even met a druid before. Or the descendant of one. But one was now standing up and heading for the door. Bonnie. Her face was smooth and expressionless, eyes glassy and looking ahead.

Wrench blew out her candle and followed Bonnie out the door, stalking the druid with light steps and quick feet, and Bonnie walked down the hallway, completely entranced in herself. She walked slowly out into the parking lot and stood next to Alaric's car.

Alaric ordered everyone to get in the car, but Wrench declined and got into her own car, started the engine, foot on the gas, ready to be done with the day. Damon, Stefan, Elena, Alaric and Bonnie all squished into Alaric's car, Meredith and Matt trailing behind in Matt's pick up truck.

Wrench followed Alaric's car, mind not really knowing where they were heading. But, with lots of turns and signaling from Alaric's car, they soon parked up next to Honoria and Thomas Fell's crypt where the two founders laid to rest. As Wrench got out, she thought sullenly, _I should be under one fo those right now._

Wrench was too quick as she reflected Bonnie's steps up to the old tomb. Bonnie whirled around and looked at her, a gentle smile on her lips. She reached out and stroked Wrench's soft cheek. Wrench froze, and was about to smack the hand away when the voice that came out of Bonnie's lips didn't sound like Bonnie. It was lower than a whisper.

"Your eternal suffering will soon end, my child." Then the face flattened to nothing again, and Bonnie continued to walk.

Wrench looked at Meredith and asked, "Does she usually say stuff like that?" Meredith shrugged and glided past Wrench to go after Wrench. Wrench, still frowning, hesitantly followed.

The old tombs of Honoria and Thomas Fell were laid in front of the group, Honoria with her fist over her breast and Thomas with that look of serenity in his stone eyes. But something was different from the way it looked around the perimeter of the tomb. The lid was askew.

That's when Wrench mind began to race. She leaned forward, examining the tomb closer. The lid was an inch off, a small corner black from the inside. That's when Wrench knew.

"This thing opens," she said aloud, and Elena mirrored her statement. Both immortals looked at each other coldly, then Wrench said, "I think this tomb is more than just a tomb."

Alaric nodded. "I understand. Can we open it?" he asked, shoving his weight up against the huge, heavy lid.

_You can break a bone or two if you're not careful moving that lid,_Wrench thought as Elena and Alaric both tried to lean on it experimentally. Alaric looked at Damon. He stood against the wall, looking slightly amused.

"Excuse me," he purred, and walked around Alaric, placing his fingers under the lip of the lid. He looked at Stefan and Wrench. Wrench went around to the side and gripped the edge, and the three vampires heaved.

The lid lifted and groaned in protest, dust and dirt falling scattering off the lid and falling into the deep depths of the tomb below. Only it wasn't a tomb.

It was an ancient crypt.

"Holy shit," Wrench muttered, leaning over to peer inside the crypt. Pitch blackness clouded the ground below the crypt, and even the vampires couldn't see. Except for Wrench, who had trained with her vampire eyes in her last few centuries. She dimly saw a ladder leading downward to the floor below. The rungs were covered with rust and grime, but Wrench squinted and saw fresh footprints in the metal rot. Someone was probably down there.

She looked up at the group staring at her. "There's a ladder leading downward. But other than that, I can't see anything else," she confirmed. Bonnie was already making her way down the ladder. Wrench reached out to grab her arm, but Stefan's hand flew out and stopped her.

"Don't touch her!" he warned. "Just let someone go down and watch out for her." He turned to Alaric and Meredith. "You two have any rope or flashlights?" he asked.

Alaric nodded. "I'll go get the flashlights and Meredith you go get the..."

Wrench vaulted over the edge of the crypt, falling into the crypt like a person falling into a black hole. Within a second, she had disappeared into the blackness.

Everyone gasped, waiting for the bones to break from the hard and unexpected impact. But Wrench landed lightly on her heels and looked around the dark crypt, fists up and muscles coiled. The darkness was fading slightly before her eyes, and she blinked. The crypt was old and smelled musty of age. It was dead quiet, too. Not even the little clicking of ants were around to be heard. Her quick ears heard shuffling from above, and Stefan had dropped down to join her after a few minutes of silence from above. He held a flashlight in his pale hand.

He pointed his beam of light above him, and Elena's form dropped down, and Bonnie was climbing down the ladder with stiff movements, her eyes staring straight ahead. Everyone had finally descended, except Damon, whose head was peeking through the gap in the crypt.

Wrench looked up. "We are both stuck in this shit, Damon. Might as well get it over with, man," she tried to persuade him with the little Power sh ehad inside her vampire blood. He listened-shockingly-and he bounded over the edge. What really made Wrench jump in surprise the kiss he gave her on the cheek when he landed.

"That was a very nice try, my sweet sister. But next time, save the compulsion for later," he joked, though it was a very weak joke.

He walked past her, following the little armada of mortals and immortals. Wrench stood there, numb with a bit of shock. The peck had been unpredictable, especially when it had come from one of her...her..._brother. Ew_.

Grimacing at the thought, she scrubbed her cheek with her palm and walked over to find the group, and Bonnie, still in her strange trance, had her small hand on the fate of the door leading in further into the crypt. It swung open with a loud creak.

Fear started to build up in her chest, and her breathing stopped all together. It felt like she was somewhere she wasn't supposed ot be. The crypt spelled something that was totally different from the way it felt like to Elena or the others. The feeling was more menacing, and it brought back harsh memories. Wrench stopped dead in her tracks when the feeling became more intense every stride she took deeper into the crypt. Her stomach heaved under the heavy feeling in her belly. She smelled fear on the others, and even Bonnie's blue and gold aura had a new color woven into the pattern. Orange, for fear.

Wrench's sharp eyes darted everywhere, scanning every corner and angle of the old crypt, but she restrained her gasp when she spotted something down further into the old tomb.

The tomb itself was similar to the one they had encountered above, only it's top had been tossed to the side and it was shattered into tow big chucks of stone. Bones from the tomb littered the floor in front of them, and Wrench heard Elena's strangled scream, only it didn't come out of her throat.

Bonnie was rotating in her spot where she had halted, and now she rested her eyes on Wrench and Elena. Both immortals flashed forward to catch Bonnie as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed forward.

A new phenomenon was happening. A certain ultraviolet light was glowing very softly above the trampled tomb. It was something Wrench had never even thought of possible. Her heart began to race, her blood freezing in their place. Her breathing picked up speed. Wrench snapped her head up when a new voice filled every contour of the room. It sounded old; ancient and sad. But there was some sort of anxiety to the new voice.

"I am here," it said slowly. Wrench gasped at the voice. She knew that voice. She had been in Fell's Church for a long time. Such a long time she even knew the founders of the place.

"Honoria Fell?" she whispered to the voice of Wrench's long dead friend.

**A/N:OMG! thanx 4 the reviews ppl. More Plz!!!**


	15. Chapter 15

~The old, dead, disembodied voice came from nowhere, but it filled the crypt with it's hollow echo. Everyone in the room was at a standstill, breathing on hold, hearts beating like helicopter blades.

Wrench stood up like a robot, automatic and slow. Bonnie turned her head around Elena's arms and stared at the glow above the tomb, and Elena gasped when a face was hooded inside the glowing ball of light. Both gasped as the voice spoke there names.

"I am not the Other Power, my children. Here I can speak to you without the aid of Bonnie's lips. Elena; Tanya Mai. I have a message for you from myself," the voice said quietly. It was the voice of an old, sad woman. She continued with her ghostly eyes on Elena. "Listen, Elena. Time is short, and danger is very near."

Elena blinked at Honoria's desperate voice. "I don't understand." Even Wrench didn't even have a response for that. But Honoria didn't seem to be listening. She kept speaking.

"My resting place has been my home now for centuries. The people have built this place for me and my husband to rest peacefully. Like Bonnie, I knew somethings no one else could know. I saw other things no one else could see."

That ticked a memory inside Wrench. "A psychic," Wrench said huskily. The nausous feeling was increasing so fast now she had the bad urge vomit. She swallowed back bile.

"Back then," Honoria continued. "They called it witchery. I used my Powers for good, and not for cruel spells or cause harm. So when I died, they laid my body to rest here along with my husband. But now, our peace has been disturbed."

Wrench stumbled a bit; the nausea growing and growing, twisting her guts and clouding her brain.

Honoria looked anxious. "Another Power had come and made it's home here, and it was filled with hatred and destruction. It has been waiting for you alone, Elena. It watches you, sometimes in the form of an owl..."

Wrench's eyes were becoming more and more blurred, and she clutched her stomach. Meredith and Stefan held her arms and Stefan whispered, "Tanya, what's wrong?" So he didn't feel it, but Wrench did. Her belly jumped again. She faintly heard Elena screech "No!" Stefan let go of Wrench to grip Elena by the shoulders. Typical for Stefan.

Honoria was still speaking. "And Stefan, it has played with you like a cat with a mouse. It lead you here and it hates the ones you love. It is filled wth poisoned love itself. But you must protect the only one you think you don't know but you do know."

Stefan was staring. "But who could that b..." Honoria interrupted.

"Your one and only beautiful sister."

Everyone turned to Wrench. She was rocking herself on her stomach, trying to ease the putrid nausea, bent at the knees. She looked up at Honoria. The face was becoming fainter and fainter. But her desperate face was strong and full of love and affection while she looked at Wrench.

"This is only your first chapter, Tanya Mai. You must trust yourself, and your brothers. Great danger is ahead for you. Be for warned. But you will be rewarded with great treasures and gifts you have ever dreamed of. Trust in yourself and your brothers, my child."

Wrench looked stunned. "But I never wanted this to happen! Why me?! I'm nothing more than a shadow!" she screamed at Honoria around her mouth full of bile. She spat it out painfully. She fell to her knees. The nausea rolled over her body in agonizing spams.

"Because the Other Power hates you more than your brothers. Full of envy and anger. It plans something more painful and torturing for you in the future. And it is more devastating than the Other Power. It is not alone, either." Honoria's face became dimmer. But she resumed her speech. "The Power wants nothing more than death, and any blood spilled will pleasure it more. Right as I speak, the animals it is controlling are heading out of the woods into the town, towards the lights."

Wrench convulsed and spat more bile and blood from last night's dinner. She started to whimper. Tears filled her eyes and slipped down her cheeks. Meredith was holding her tightly, rocking slightly, but the motion made Wrench spit again and again, spasming harder and harder.

The light was receding. It was speaking to Bonnie now, something about her secret powers, but Wrench's ears were popping over and over, making them bleed with blood and earwax. Her sight was blurred completely, and something new was going on in her mind. Electrical shocks started to go off in her head, and some sort of heavy flimsy wall of Power blocked her off from using her own Power. She spasmed, and vomited, then collapsed to the floor, curling up against the agony. What the fuck was going on with her?

Finally, Honoria said something in he head around the wall of Power. It was soft and calm. Yet sad and anxious.

"My child. Listen to me. This is the first chapter of your story. You must use all the aid around you. Danger and evil waits ahead of you, waiting for you to come forth. But succeed, and you'll receive a life long dream. Freedom of your eternal suffering." And just like that, the voice disappeared like the flame on a candle wick.

Wrench screamed at the tearing agony ripping through her body. Her scream bounced off the walls and went up through the hole int he ceiling where the crypt entrance now was. Everyone stared with horror as she turned her sudden attention to the far wall next. The stone looked like it had been ripped open, showing a tunnel right behind it.

A snarl sounded, deep and savage, and Wrench screamed again. Wrench couldn't think straight; every one of her senses was being blocked off by something powerful and white. White...blue eyed owl...white object flashing forward in front of her...Damon didn't kill Conner.

Then she knew. With the little strength she had left, she flipped up on her feet and stumbled toward the mortals as something white shot out of the tunnel opening. Wrench threw herself between the humans and the white tiger. Through the heavy ringing in her ears, Elena screamed, "_Damon no!"_

The black wolf jumped out of the shadows and attacked the white tiger with the full force of it's body, shoving the great cat against the far wall. Wrench shouted, "Alaric! Get the others and get to the dance! You have to warn everyone! Just go and don't turn back!" Wrench slipped her body around the gate to go after the humans, but the great cat slammed the gate shut and snarled at Wrench with white teeth, dripping with fresh blood. Wrench snarled, blasting her Power against the Other Power erected in her head, and morphed.

The black leopard hissed and jumped on top of the tiger, teeth aiming for the long white throat. The tiger was shocked by the move, but effortlessly threw the leopard to the ground, yanking open a vein in the throat. Wrench morphed back to human, and all she could do was watch the fight around tears.

The tiger had downed the black wolf, and now the tiger had swiped the flashlight from Stefan's hand. He hissed, and clutched Elena to him.

Wrench snarled, and tried again. She grew her fangs and transformed again, claws and cat teeth going for the tiger's throat.

Stefan and Elena were both numb with shock as they watched the two cats grapple hard.

The tiger had the leopard by the scruff, and with a quick flick of it's head, the leopard went flying into the shadows, still as death and unconscious.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench woke up feeling agony ripping at her throat, and she tried to breathe. But the pain didn't allow her to even twist her head around. Instead, Wrench's mind was filled with visions of...Katherine?

Wrench flinched when Katherine's sneering face stuffed her groggy mind, other visions included her bothering Wrench and getting Wrench into trouble on purpose.

The last vision shocked Wrench, chilling her to the bone..

Wrench had taken a stroll through her father's gardens under the paleness of the moon. As she was walking around some boxed hedges, she caught two voices on the other side of the great hedge. Stefa and Katherine.

Katherine and Stefan were sitting on a fountain's edge, Katherine's little white hand with it's lapis lazuli stone twinkling in the moonlight. Wrench, Tanya Mai, carefully looked around the hedge and listened intently.

"...go out in the sun?" Stefan was Tanya Mai peeked aroundthe hedge, praying they wouldn't see her. Thankfully, both of them had there backs to Tanya Mai while she watched them chat.

Katherine, the tramp that she was, held up one small hand. Something glinted on her hand, underneath the moonlight. A ring?

I _can,_yes, but the sun tires me so much. I have never been so strong before when I woke up," she said in he rlight, silver voice. Tanya Mai frowned. And looked up at the night sky. She wondered, _But the sun around here is just fine. Not too hot, not too cool._

Tanya Mai tuned back to what that were saying. It was Stefan's turn to talk.

"But how did you change?" he asked. Tanya Mai stiffened at the word _change._

Katherine's eyes were on the little stream of water as the fountain's water lasped in the moonlight.

"I was often sick as a child, and the last time the surgeon came to see me, he said I was finally going to die. I remember lying in my bed, too weak to move and breathe, and my Papa was crying next to me, my maid Gudren behind him, weeping herself." She paused to shiver, then smiled reassuringly at Stefan. Tanya Mai had small shivers running up her back fromt eh way she spoke. She spoke like her illness was nothing more than a chit-chat topic. Katherine kept going.

"One night I woke up with Gudren standing next to my bed. When she stepped aside, a man was standing behind her, Klaus was his name. The town had feared him, and when he stepped toward my bed, I cried out to Gudren to save me, but she simply stood in the background while Klaus put his mouth to my neck." Tanya Mai's blood froze. _Vampire, a bloodsucking leech from the devil's own caverns of fire._

Stefan seemed shocked as well. But Katherine smiled a beautiful smile, full of affection. His face calmed just a little bit. "Weren't you scared?"

"It was a bit terrifying at first, but it soon went away. There was a little pain at first, but soon it became pleasureful afterwards. When he gave me his own blood to drink, I felt stronger than I had felt in months. And when the surgeon came again, he said it was a miracle that I was able to sit up and speak again. Papa cried agin out of pure happiness, but one day I will have to leave again because since the illness, I haven't aged one hour."

Tanya Mai went running toward her maid in the servants quarters.

Wrench was suddenly jerked from her thoughts, and her throat stung even worst than it had before she drifted off. But the cloudiness in her vision cleared, and she blinked again. A graceful silhouette was floating around in a white dress and lighting candles softly. Wrench squinted, and actually believed it was Elena's face on the pair of small shoulders. The face was pale and beautiful, like it was carved out of the finest marble, but the feeling was so wrong. Like a lovely flower with a poisonous nectar. The figure turned slowly to look at Wrench, lying on the floor in a black heap, and turned to Elena who had whispered, "Hello Katherine."

Wrench clutched her head and screamed so loudly inside her mind that even Elena and Katherine flinched front he blast of pure Power.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:Okay. I have made a few changes to the story when the group meets Katherine. But don't worry! I haven't changed too much. Just a few tweecks to the story since we have another immortal Katherine hates!! :-) So this chapter will be different from the original story, but it won't be changed too much like I said. And I cut out some stuff that'll be explained in the next chapter. _Enjoy!!_**

**I disclaim most of what is written in here. Alot of it is straight from the book, and it is all L.J. Smith's work. Thanx!**

Katherine's voice was like honey; sweet and light, but it was ruined honey. Poisoned. Wrench, with the full force of Power, screamed inside her head, letting out all her anger and frustration.

Elena, tied up between unconscious Stefan and a bloody Damon, whipped her head around at the horrible sound, and watched Wrench's body writhe. Katherine simply laughed.

"Scream all you want, bitch. But I control you now," she said childishly. The tone of her voice was like that of a demon's, welcoming a hellish murderer to the gates of hell. "You'll never get out of my control."

Wrench tried to at least breathe, but the little spams being sent through her body made her choke on a sob.

Katherine pouted sarcastically. "Oh. Is the poor, poor whore crying? Do you want me to rock you to sleep, little baby?" Katherine pretended to mime a mother's face when her child wept, but then she spit on Wrench's cheek, and pirouetted in front of Elena.

Elena looked shocked, having watching the little scene between Wrench and Katherine. "Katherine. Katherine, please listen to me..." Her voice sounded dry. "Wh...why did you do this?"

Katherine laughed, a small little tinkle. "Because I love them. Do you love them Elena?"

Wrench had the strength and will to raise her head from the musty old floor of the crypt; she could only hear, but couldn't see or move. She blinked through the clouds in her eyes. Stefan had his head sagging against his chest, and his neck was ripped open, blood drying onto his shirt's collar. Her other brother had his shirt tattered and torn, blood seeping through. His head had a slash from temple to cheek, and more blood oozed slowly out. He looked so still and unmoving that Wrench would've thought he was dead if it wasn't for the shallow breathing of his chest.

Wrench had to guess she was no better. Her throat still burned, and her limbs were locked and stiff. She had the worst of all headaches, and she felt little pricks of pain when she moved her wrist and ankle. Wrist and ankle...torn open throat...that sparked a memory. Conner's death.

But she had no strength left in her. All she could do was listen with mute dread.

Katherine had stopped dancing in front of Elena and now she asked her, "Which one do you like Elena?" She smiled dangerously. She leaned in so close to Elena that Katherine's pale rose lips nearly brushed Elena's. "I think they're both fun. Do you like fun, Elena?"

"Katherine. Please, just listen to me..." Elena's voice seemed to trail off. Wrench faintly heard Elena's thoughts, but it bounced back when her Power hit the barrier of the Other Power. But it wasn't enough to keep out the little glitch Wrench felt in Elena's head.

_She's afraid of Katherine,_ Wrench thought flatly, but her feelings toward the golden immortal not tied to the gate reflected Elena's. Wrench was hardly the one to get spooked. But all the Power Katherine had...it was nothing next to Wrench's supply of Power.

Wrench moaned at another jerk of pain, and let her eyes rest for just a moment. The pain she was feeling...it was excruciating. Every pore on her body burned like fire, and the wall of Power in her head was so annoying to get through. Wrench moaned, and Katherine turned back to her.

"Isn't pain aweful? It just makes you wish you were dead right now, doesn't it?" she purred. She floated over to her and grabbed a fistful of Wrench's curly hair, yanking it back and rearing back with her teeth. Her teeth struck home, and Wrench screamed in agony.

"Katherine! Leave her alone! Please stop!" Elena was yelling for Katherine to stop, but Katherine sucked on Wrench's neck hard, drawing so much blood that Wrench's screams halted and turned to whimpers.

Katherine chuckled under her bloodsucking, and pulled back to look at Wrench's face. "I never knew envy and revenge could taste so sweet," she murmured to Wrench and Elena both. Then put her lips back to Wrench's neck.

"KATHERINE! LEAVE HER ALONE!" Elena's screech was hoarse but sharp, and it drew Katherine's attention to her. Damon, bloodied and pale, flinched at Elena's tone, and Stefan's breathing stopped when Elena had said Katherine's name.

Elena turned to Stefan, and his head rose and his eyes opened. He looked at Elena before Katherine's childish giggle made him focus on her. He sat there stunned for a simple second. Then he started to stutter. "Katherine. But...it's impossible...you're dead..."

Katherine stood up, and tossed Wrench's limp body to the side, and Wrench landed in front of Damon with a hard thump. She squealed and curled up around the pain. Katherine put up her small hand to her lips, giggling behind it. She waved her hands at Damon and tinkled, "You wake up, too." Damon's head finally came up, revealing his blood stained eyes and a weary looking face. He quickly looked at his captor, then a faint smile played on his lips. "Our sweet little kitten. I should've known," he numbly muttered. He then noticed whose body was in front of him. His eyes grew glassy and hard, his lips in a tight line. He turned strangely angry.

Wrench had the strength to sit up with the bars of the gate supporting her weight. She wasn't tied up like the others, but she certainly felt trapped and numb. She knew she was going to die before any of the others, so she played in Katherine's little game, smiling around bloody lips.

"Well, Katherine," she said through blood in her mouth. "It's been a very long time, hasn't it?" She flashed her fangs. Katherine snarled at the threat. Wrench chuckled. "I always knew you were against me."

Katherine then smiled. "Same as always, sweet Tanya Mai. Always the one to want nothing more than to get rid of me. Too late now." She spun around in a circle and ended up in Wrench's face. "So don't anger me, or you'll suffer more than you bargained for." She shot out Power to Wrench.

Wrench writhed and fell screaming. Katherine jerked her up and flung her again, Wrench's back slamming into one of the broken tomb's pieces. Katherine laughed like a child whom just got what she wanted for Christmas. Wrench had tears running down her face, and she watched Katherine come up in front of Damon.

"But you didn't suspect anything, did you, Damon? I fooled everyone." She laughed her enchanted laugh. "It was so much fun, watching you while you watched Stefan, and none of you knew I was there. I even scratched you once!" She mimicked a kitten's slash.

Damon seemed whimsically amused. "At Elena's house. Yes, I remember. Well, you're certainly a hunter. The lady _and _the tiger, as it were."

Katherine also looked amused and playful like a little child. "And I was the one who put Stefan in that well," she bragged, smiling pointed teeth. "I saw you two fighting; I liked that. I followed Stefan to the edge of the forest, and then..." She cupped her hands and clapped them together, and looked inside them like she had caught something. She giggled quietly. "I was going to keep playing with him." Then she thrust out her lower lip and balefully looked at Elena. "But you took him. That was mean, Elena. You shouldn't have done that."

Suddenly, Wrench felt like what was fingers probing around the barrier of Power in her mind. With Katherine distracted by saying, "Greedy girls get punished. And you Elena, have been a greedy girl," to Elena, Wrench had the intuition to look at Damon. He was staring at her, his eyes focused and intent. Wrench frowned and mouthed, What are you doing?

Damon smirked, and she heard his voice in her head.

_I think you deserve a little reward for helping us._

Wrench blinked in confusion. What the hell was he...then she knew with a jolt of shock. He was giving her Power to fight back against Katherine. He smiled at her gently. Now that was new. His smiles were dangerous and sarcastic. But this one was sweet and tender. He was being nice to her. Wrench's heart felt different somehow now.

But Wrench knew he needed more time to give her enough strength, so she pretended to still be winded by Katherine's careless toss, and she felt the barrier dissolve slightly.

Stefan had asked Katherine what she had done, and Katherine looked flattered by his question.

"Well, if you must know..." She pirouetted again, and then stopped, pointing at them all. "No," she said. "You tell me. You guess and I'll tell you 'right' or 'wrong'. Go on; guess!"

Wrench could tell Elena was horrified of what Katherine was saying. Wrench felt her Power building up from Damon's aid, and she felt relieved when the burning pain go away. If only the spinning in her head would stop...

"You attacked Vicki Bennett," Elena observed. _Smart girl,_ Wrench thought without any sarcasm at all. The barrier in Wrench's mind dissolved faster. "The girl in the ruined church," Elena said.

"Yes!" Katherine said excitedly. "Well, after all, she was in my church, and what she and that boy were doing in the church...well! You don't do that in church. So I _scratched _her!" She mimed another kitten's slash. She licked pale rose lips. "And I licked up the blood, too." She pointed to Stefan. "Next guess!"

"You've been hounding her ever since," he said through a thick throat.

The barrier in her mind was almost gone. Just a little bit more...

Katherine seemed impatient with Stefan's statement. "Yes, we're done with that! Go on to something else," she said sharply. But her fingers twinkled with the buttons on the neck of her dress. Wrench had seen what she had done with Vicki Bennett. Vicki had almost stripped herself nude in front of the entire high school cafeteria Elena used to attend.

The barrier was so close to being down, disappearing so fast it was nearly impossible.

Katherine spoke dangerously. "Next guess."

Damon was unaffected by Katherine's childish tone. "Why do you say it's your church? What about Honoria Fell?"

Katherine laughed again. Oh, that old spook!" Katherine looked behind Elena, past Wrench to look maliciously at the old tomb. Wrench then realized that the three tied up were tied up near the entrance to the tomb. "She can't do _anything._She's just an old pack of bones." Katherine's graceful hands made gestures as if she were breaking bones. "All she can do is talk, and lots of times I stopped you from hearing her." Katherine's expression grew dark. Wrench flinched at the look Katherine gave to her.

Elena continued through a thick throat. "Bonnie dreamed about you. But she thought it was me. She told me I sh esaw me stadning under a tree with the wind blowing. And she was afraid of me. She said I looked different, pale but almost glowing. And a crow flew by and I grabbed it and wrung it's neck." She looked at Katherine. "But it was you."

Katherine looked delighted, as if Elena had proved her point. "People dream about me alot," she said smugly. "Your aunt...she's dreamed about me alot. I tell her it was her fault you died. She thinks it's you telling her." Even when she talked about Elena, Wrench was sickened by the statement. Elena's aunt must be so upset, Wrench thought sympathetically.

"And now I wish you had died. I kept you under the river long enough. But you were such a tramp, getting blood from both of them, that you came back. Oh, well." She shrugged.

Katherine looked at Wrench with a dangerous gaze. "Next guess," she said slowly. It was Wrench's turn to ask questions. Wrench held her chin high and spoke with her true voice. The voice of command.

"You killed Conner O'Donnell, my best friend," Wrench said, faking her hoarse voice. The barrier was completely down now, and Wrench could feel the Power Damon was feeding her grow so strong.

Katherine was shocked now. Her childish face looked like someone who just found out something they couldn't handle. Katherine's jewel blue eyes were so big and dazed, and Wrench wondered why.

Then Katherine smiled, and trailed her hair behind her to kneel down in front of Wrench. "That would be the most wonderful thing in my life, but sadly, I never even touched the boy. He was such a bastard, though. Be glad he's gone." Damon had given Wrench enough Power.

Wrench acted.

Wrench pounced on top of Katherine, sending both immortals tumbling away. Wrench had her jaws locked around Katherine's throat, and drew so much blood Katherine was breathing heavily when Wrench stood up over her.

"You know," Wrench said, walking slowly around Katherine in a circle. "Sometimes, people get angry for a few good reasons, and sometimes they just get angry for nothing." She kicked Katherine in the ribs. The vampire squealed. "But me...I have been angry for quite a few years, centuries actually, and you've made number to be mad at and about."

Katherine snarled, bared her fangs, and aimed for Wrench's throat. Wrench brought up her hand, choking Katherine, and shoved Katherine with her mind. Wrench had her dagger out in her hand, and she cut open Katherine's stomach with a quick strike. She knelt down next to the screaming vampire.

"You've been a very bad girl, Katherine," Wrench purred, stroking Katherine's long hair. "You're going to have to die if you don't sober up. Untie them. Now." Wrench inclined her head to where Elena and Wrench's brother were still tied up. All three looked proud of Wrench for being so courageous.

But Katherine had something else up her sleeve. Katherine jumped at Wrench.


	17. Chapter 17

~Katherine jumped Wrench.

It was fast, almost faster than a jet, and it was so unexpected. Katherine had her fangs tearing into Wrench's throat, Power bursting out of Katherine as she burned Wrench's newly supplied Power. Katherine's lovely face was contorted, twisting into the demon face that was her true face. She aimed directly for Wrench's long neck.

But, though Wrench hadn't expected it, she pushed at Katherine as Katherine shoved both vampires into a tumbling and snarling fit, and Damon, Stefan, and Elena all yelled at Katherine to stop.

The fight kept going, neither not ready to give up or back down. Katherine had one arm around Wrench's waist, yanking on her hair, exposing her neck. But Wrench fought back, using her nails to draw blood across Katherine's cheek. Katherine was hissing. Wrench was biting.

But Wrench slipped up. She had her fingers locked around Katherine's throat, trying to unclasp her lapis lazuli necklace. But Katherine locked her jaws around Wrench's waist, and flung Wrench away so the bleeding immortal slammed against the wall near Stefan. Stefan's eyes were stricken and confounded. "but I thought you were dead," he said. "You _were _dead, five hundred years ago. Katherine..."

Katherine turned to the three tied up captives, and hugged her elbows, smiling like a child again. "Oh, that was the first time I fooled you," she said. Her tone didn't mirror her face, though. It sounded sullen. Wrench sat up, her back and arms supporting her. Katherine sent more burning pain to Wrench, but Wrench blocked it off with her own Power. "I arranged it all with my maid, Gudren. The two of you wouldn't accept my choice." Katherine's angry eyes flicked back and forth between Stefan and Damon. "I wanted us all to be happy; I loved you. I loved you both. But that wasn't good enough for you."

There was actual hurt in Katherine's eyes, tears brimming her blue eyes. The immortal looked like the hurt child that must've been five hundred years ago.

"I wanted you to love each other," she burst out, bewildered. "but you wouldn't. And I felt awful. I thought if you thought I died, that you _would_love each other. And I knew I had to go away, anyway, before Papa suspected what I was. So Gudren and I arranged it." Katherine was deep in thought now, eyes staring off to nowhere in particular. "I had another talisman against the sun made, and I gave her my ring. And she took my white dress...my best white dress...and ashes from the fireplace. We burned fat there so the ashes would smell right. And she put them under the sun, where you would find them, along with my note. I wasn't sure you'd be fooled, but you were.

"But then..." Katherine's face twisted in greif. "you did everything _wrong._ You were supposed to be sorry, and cry, and comfort each other. I did it for _you._ But instead you ran and got swords. Why did you _do_that?" It was an earsplitting cry from the heart. "Why didn't you take my gift? You treated it like garbage. And then you gave _her my ring!_ My ring!" Her voice was rising now. "Mine, that I left for you to remember me by. And you gave it to _her!_" She pointed at Elena. "That was when I knew I had to kill him instead of simply playing with him."

Wrench shook her head. Katherine was such a baby.

Katherine turned to Wrench. "And then you got in the way," she spit. Wrench, dumbfounded, stared and wondered how the hell she got in the way of Katherine.

"And is there a specific reason why you changed me as well?" Wrench said. Her brothers looked shocked. No one, not even her brothers, have no idea how and why she changed. People thought she changed when she ran away after Katherine embarrassed her in front of her father; that another vampire had captured her and made her face her destiny as a vampire.

No one had even had the second thought that Katherine changed her.

Katherine's grief filled face turned murderous as she faced Wrench. Katherine flashed her fangs. "You used to be everything to the Salvatore household. Even your father. I think you should hear your life's story, no?" She tinkled a laugh.

Wrench laughed. "I think I know my life pretty damn well, thank you," she said. Katherine slapped her across the cheek.

"But do even remember your childhood?" she hissed. Wrench frowned, searching her memories for one piece of childhood. Strangely, she knew nothing. She couldn't even remember when her mother died.

Katherine smiled at her failed attempt at trying to find her childhood. "I wiped your memory clean when I came. But first I searched your head. You were such a spoiled whore, inheriting your mother's dowry, and being appreciated by your father. Your mother took the greatest care in you that she hardly realized she was dying. And when she did die, she gave you her best maid, Martyl, along with everything she had. Dresses, money, an educated slave, jewelry,everything. I'm sure you remember her. And your father loved you very much when your mother died." Wrench had no idea what she was talking about now. Her father had never loved her. Katherine continued. "And when I came around, everything changed without the help of my hypnosis. Your father took great interest in me, and your brothers never even knew you were around anymore. You were so upset, and you cried every night." Katherine giggled at Wrench as her expression went from confused to angry.

"Shut up..." Wrench whispered. Katherine didn't listen.

"And you never even knew what I was until the day before you would go off to England that I changed you."

"Katherine. Shut your mouth..."

"I bit you, and you screamed. I covered your mouth with my hand to muffle your whimsy little screams..."

"Knock it off Katherine..." Wrench got louder.

"I forced my blood into your mouth by squeezing blood from my wrist, and you drank it while crying so hard.

"Stop it! I don't want to hear it anymore!" Wrench was sobbing from the horrible memory.

"And when you found out your brothers had killed each other, you used that dull looking weapon of yours and killed yourself. then woke up with more pain on your heart than you bargained for..."

"SHUT THE HELL UP KATHERINE!" Tears crashed down her face.

"And when you tried to run away, you got tangled up in the trouble they have caused around here with Elena and...."

Wrench bit her in the neck, and blood sprayed in all directions. Katherine screamed. Wrench's teeth felt a vein break in Katherine's neck, and Katherine screamed louder.

Then Wrench pulled her mouth away from her neck, hearing a weird _pop_as she lifted her mouth away from Katherine. Wrench licked the red hot blood from her lips. She circled Katherine slowly.

"Next time you want to piss me off," she snarled, squirting blood tainted spit at Katherine through her teeth. "Try doing it somewhere else, and not in front of my brothers. Or poor Elena." Wrench winked at Elena.

_Keep distracting her , Tanya. You'll live longer,_ Wrench thought. She took small, slow steps around Katherine's body, and, feeling like giving payback to her, she caused pain all through out Katherine's body like she had done to Wrench.

"You haven't learn your manners at all, have you Tanya Mai?" Katherine muttered. She looked up through her bloodied, golden hair. "Just like old times."

Wrench chuckled, then aimed a kick at Katherine's pretty little nose with the heel of her boot. "Why don't you just wait til I say you can talk, got it?" She kicked Katherine again. This felt good to Wrench. Just getting back at Katherine felt like heaven to her.

"If you didn't kill Conner, who did then? You should be strong enough to know," she purred, squatting down next to Katherine.

Katherine snarled, and drew her nails across Wrench's cheek. She didn't even wince at the sting.

"C'mon, now, little princess. Surely you can't be that stupid," Wrench prompted. Katherine's childish blue eyes filled with tears again, and Wrench, feeling so full of fury, spit on Katherine's cheek like Katherine did to her.

Katherine hissed, "And I if I did know, why should I tell you?"

Wrench smirked. "Why do you think vampires are created?"

"To kill..."

"Exactly. Now, won't you tell me?" Wrench held up her dagger, and made it's deathly balde flash in the morning sunlight.

Katherine wasn't listening anymore. Her fangs cut her lower lip, and talons sprang from her fingertips. Katherine tore open Wrench's chest, blood going in all directions. Damon had lept up and joined the battle, both Salvatore siblings fighting. Elena and Stefan wriggled against there bonds, trying to jump in and help.

Katherine had tossed away Wrench and was now tearing open Damon's already bleeding chest, and Wrench heard the evil voice inside her mind that was loud and thunderous like lightening.

_Now you'll be sorry! Now I'm going to make you sorry! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!_

Wrench, slumped against the wall once more, fainted along with Elena and Damon and Stefan.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~A little while later, Wrench slowly opened her eyes to see Elena staring at her with concern. Stefan was also watching her, but Damon was on the floor, fountains of blood gushing slowly out of his new wounds.

Wrench scrambled up and ran to her brother, landing on her knees next to him. Damon was so still, not even breathing. She felt for a pulse around his neck; his wrist; his chest...a faint heart thumped rapidly.

When she touched him in the chest, Damon coughed then fell back to the floor, eyes closed. But his mind was strong in hers.

_My sweet, delicate sister,_ he sent. Wrench saw his lips twitch slightly.

_Yes Damon?_

_I'm so sorry...for everything I've done to you. If there's anything that I can..._

_Shush, now. Just rest your mind, brother. _

_No. Not until I've explained everything. _

Wrench was confused, frowning. What did he need to say anyway? He never needed words to explain himself.

_I've been stupid like Stefan to ignore you for so long. But...I don't know. I guess I was so caught up in life, my _own_ at that, and I didn't really recognize my own sister. _

Tears were falling from Wrench's cheeks. Something was fluttering in her heart.

_Really? _she said. She moved hair from his face. She suddenly didn't hate him as much as she used to.

Damon's lips twitched higher. His own cheeks were wet.

_I would never lie to you, not when you're in this kind of stage where you need some attention. I promise my blood and my soul._ Damon slowly and painfully raised a bloody hand.

Wrench was numb with shock. Her brother never, ever, said those kinds of things to her. Wrench felt touched, but still wary of his sudden interest in her.

Knowing her brother needed to keep this secret, she bit her wrist, drawing fresh blood, and pressed it against her brother's.

_I, Damon Salvatore,_ he started, eyes watching her. _will watch over my sister as long as she needs me._

_I, Tanya Mai Salvatore, will watch over my brother as long as he needs me._

They both let go, and Wrench planted a peck on his forehead. Damon raised a hand to wipe away her tears.

_I love you, my sister._

His body seemed to slump, and he fell into the black waters swarming his head.


	18. Chapter 18

~Wrench was beyond shocked. She had just sworn to protect her elder brother, Damon, through blood, and she had the slightest feeling that Stefan and Elena were watching also. Wrench felt odd, like a fire burning in her chest, but not so hot that it melted everything inside her. The burning was warm and sweet, and it made her insides feel warm, and even a little fuzzy.

Wrench didn't know what to do when Damon passed out cold, but she had sworn in blood when she knew it probably wouldn't last. And she also had the knowledge to know she'd pay dearly if she ever backed down on her word. Swearing in blood was dangerous She had watched Damon's body slump in on itself, his black eyes closing slowly. He sighed when he passed out. And she had a mission to do now. Suddenly, Wrench felt her earlier rage come seeping back, crawling up her spine. Katherine had did this. She had caused trouble in Fell's Church, and had left her and her brothers to clean up the mess. How dare Katherine do this to her. How dare she pick on Wrench and her brothers when it was ll her fault anyway.

Something white hurled to the ground from the opening of the crypt.

Wrench sunk back into the shadows, cloaking herself like she had always done when she didn't want to be seen. Years of experience had really paid off, because when Katherine took form in front of the tied up group, she didn't even feel Wrench's mind when Wrench reached out with her Power and read her thoughts.

_She's going to kill them now,_ Wrench thought, coiling her muscles, getting ready to act one last time. This time, she wasn't going to give up to Katherine's silly games. She was going to fight hard and long. She revelled in the idea of jumping Katherine as she stepped into the light. Katherine's dress sparkled like there was silver threads sewn into the soft fabric.

Katherine was complaining how Elena and Stefan were blocking her way to the tunnel leading toward the town, under the river instead of over it.

But she announced, "I'm going to kill you now. Then I'm going under the river to kill your friends. I don't think the dogs have done it yet. but I'll take care of it myself."

"Let Elena go," Stefan said, his voice a simple quench. Wrench pressed her fingertips against the cold walls of the tomb. Katherine stepped over Damon's still body.

"I haven't decided how to do it yet," Katherine said, ignoring Damon's body and Stefan's plea. "I might roast you. There's enough light for that now. And I've got these." She reached down in front of her, in the creases of her white dress. Her closed hand opened, and three rings, one golden and two silver, dropped to the ground. "One-two-three!"

Wrench, as quietly as she could, she reached around her right thigh. A long silver ring, thick but thin, circled her thigh. She felt the little hump of the lapis lazuli stone near the side of her leg. This made her release a soft breath. She had the big ring around her thigh for that particular reason. Why would anyone stick their hands up a random person's leg anyway? Ew.

she smirked at the thought of Katherine's hand going up her pants. Katherine was such a baby.

"But I don't think that's slow enough," Katherine continued, scuffing the rings carelessly with the toe of one foot. The rings scattered under her foot. "But there are other ways. I could cut you and watch you bleed. I like watching." She hugged her elbows and twirled around, ending up in front of Stefan. She leaned in close to his face.

"I think I'll start with you. I'm hungry again. and you're so sweet, Stefan. I forgot how sweet you are." She let her tongue flick out to taste his lips.

"I could use rats," Katherine was saying pensively. "Rats could be fun. I can tell them when to start and when to stop." Suddenly, Katherine's jewel blue eyes widened. "I know! I'll drink you almost up and make you watch while I kill her! I'll leave you just enough strength so you see her die before you do. Doesn't that sound like a good plan?" Blithely, she clapped her hands and pirouetted again, dancing right in front of the square patch of light that showed morning was coming.

Wrench suddenly had and idea. She knew that Katherine was stronger than her, but Wrench had her lapis lazuli charm still on, and if she just got a little closer, just a tiny bit toward the light...

Katherine stepped right up to Wrench's desired spot.

Wrench charged, with all the force of a great hunting cat behind her.

Surprisingly, so did Elena.

Both vampires rushed Katherine, and Wrench held Katherine while Elena, inside the sunlight with her body filling up with a glowing light that could kill her, grasped for Katherine's blue necklace. Katherine was quite surprised at the bold move, especially since Wrench and Elena hated each other and worked together to get rid of the old hag from hell. Elena's clumsy hand finally caught the chain, and Wrench threw Katherine away into the light as Stefan raced forward to catch Elena's body as she started to fall to the ground. Katherine had ripped open three large veins in Wrench's throat, causing Wrench to fall backwards, screaming. Katherine's necklace spun away into the shadows.

But Katherine's scream was louder. It reached a crescendo, and her golden hair caught flames. Cracks in her skull opened, and fire blazed from the cracks. Katherine's dress was burned to charcoal as she fell. Her bones poofed into dust, and was blown away by an unseen wind.

Wrench closed her eyes as the screaming stopped. She pressed a hankerchief to her neck. The veins in her neck started to heal, but a great deal of blood kept dripping down her throat.

Elena was in Stefan's arms, and she looked exhausted. She closed her eyes to sleep a while. She was unsuccessful, though, and Wrench used a bit of her leftover Power to put Elena to sleep. Elena sighed and rested for just a moment.

Wrench revelled in the complete silence after that, letting her mind rest and be at ease.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~The air was quiet, peaceful.

Wrench opened her eyes slowly, and looked to where the morning light spilled in through the opening of the crypt. The light was gray, but it was soft and dim, perfect for vampire eyes. Wrench felt like she was floating, she felt so good. The veins in her neck healed, but her neck still hurt. She turned her head just a little.

Elena was awake in Stefan's arms, and she was telling him something softly. Her pale lips moved slowly, and Stefan said something back to her.

There was movement behind Stefan.

Damon had crawled up behind Stefan and was adding something to Elena's goodbye speech.

Elena looked at Wrench and, with a small flick of her hand, gestured to Wrench.

Wrench stood up with a groan, her hand massaging her neck where two permanent bite marks were now tattooed to her neck. She slumped down in front of Elena as Elena spoke with a soft gentle tone.

"You and I make a good team," she said, and sighed, smiling through her lips. Elena patted Wrench's knee very tenderly, and Wrench pushed hair out of Elena's slitted eyes. Wrench had wanted that for so long. To die and be carried by light and be taken to the place where her nanny Martyl was now. She envied Elena so badly.

The idea now came to her, and she started to look at the light, her hands going for the large ring on her thigh. But Damon's ragged voice stopped her. "Now is not your time, my sister."

Wrench looked at his blood stained eyes. The black, bottomless eyes were staring at his sister, the sarcasm and cockiness gone from his eyes. He shook his head at her, mouthing the word no, and turned his attention back to Elena, whom looked so tired.

"Promise me," Elena said to the Salvatore siblings. "Promise me that all fo you will take care of each other. Promise me Stefan? Will you take care of each other? Even your sister?"

Stefan smiled through tears. "I promise. Oh, Elena..." He watched her eyelids get heavy. He choked on a sob.

"Say hi to Conner for me, okay Elena?" Wrench whispered to Elena. Her heart soared at the thought of Conner's wonderful face, and her black, hopeless soul lifted a bit when Elena nodded.

"I will, Wrench. I promise," she said drowsily. Elena felt waves of sleepiness overcome her.

"Time to go home," she whispered.

Wrench turned her head to the light where Elena's spirit had flown into, and Elena was gone.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Wrench saw Stefan's face crack, and tears fell from his eyes. Wrench felt a few of her own. But it wasn't of sorrow or pain. They were tears of relief. Her soul lifted a bit when Elena closed her eyes and drifted away in Stefan's arms.

She knew Elena wouldn't say hi to Conner. She'd probably forget as soon as she got where he was. Elena had hated Wrench. Wrench didn't even know why she had asked Elena to say hi to Conner on the first place.

Wrench stood up, and gazed at the rectangle of sunlight. Wrench felt hopeless and lost like she always did, but she felt a bit happier with Elena and Katherine gone. Wrench cocked her head a bit and wondered if the sunlight really took away a vampire's life. She had such a curiosity to find out.

There was some shuffling behind her, but she didn't turn around to find out. She still felt heart broken since she knew Stefan was going to care more about Elena than his family.

_Like it will always be_, she thought. Her hand was tapping the golden ring on her thigh, wondering if she had the guts to go into the light after Elena. But the idea subsided. _I'll wait until the boys reach and age where they know I haven't aged a day, then I'll let myself go._

Two hands caught her shoulders. She turned around, and looked at her brothers in the faces.

Stefan had one arm around his brother, supporting his weight, and Damon's breathing was laboured and hard. Both gave her looks that said, _We'll follow you wherever you go._

Wrench turned all the way around and lifted Damon's other arm. Her anger toward her eldest brother didn't dissipate completely, but she felt something tug at her heart when she stared at her brother. Things were going to change a bit around here, and she and her brothers knew it. Her brothers were going to try and treat her fairly.

"C'mon," she said quietly, shifting Damon's weight onto her shoulder. "You need some where to rest." She and Stefan both nodded at each other, ready to take Damon somewhere so Damon could regain his strength.

But no one moved. The three vampire siblings held each other closely, all of them just thinking of what could've been five hundred years ago.

A family.


	19. Author's Note

**~A/N:Soooooooo..........you thought this would be the end for our main hero, Tanya Mai Salvatore(a.k.a. Wrench.) Since she had kicked Katherine's ass and swore in blood to protect her older brother, Damon, you'd expect her to be over and out of the picture. You'd expect her to be happy with life now that Elena Gilbert is gone and she can take a break and work in peace since her brothers left town.**

**BUT YOU'RE WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Didn't you here Honoria Fell when she said that Wrench is only in chapter one of her long journey???!!!**

**Wrench is now starting to feel more alone than ever, and she knows something new is coming to Fell's Church. Back at the shop, she notices Zane is being more soft and gentle with her than he used to be. He is suddenly taken a distant interest in Wrench. Does she like him back??? And will she discover the new evil haunting the dark shadows of the shop.**

**~Hey Hey Hey! DamonSalvatoreLuver here! I am very gracious for all the reviews I've gotten. Plz keep them coming. I will be writing more, I promise. I just need some ideas and I usually take a while to write. :-P But I'll certainly try and type them quick!!!!!!**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver :-)**


	20. Chapter 20

Last time in Vampire Diaries: All Alone With An Enemy Part 1...

_Wrench turned all the way around and lifted Damon's other arm. Her anger toward her eldest brother didn't dissipate completely, but she felt something tug at her heart when she stared at her brother. Things were going to change a bit around here, and she and her brothers knew it. Her brothers were going to try and treat her fairly._

_"C'mon," she said quietly, shifting Damon's weight onto her shoulder. "You need some where to rest." She and Stefan both nodded at each other, ready to take Damon somewhere so Damon could regain his strength._

_But no one moved. The three vampire siblings held each other closely, all of them just thinking of what could've been five hundred years ago._

_A family._

* * *

Part 2

_Six months after the fight with Katherine..._

~"Zane! Wake up! We've got so many orders to fill!" Wrench banged on Zane's, aka Bolt's, door so hard with her fist she knew even the boys down stairs could hear it. She leaned on one hip, feeling oddly impatient and woke up with a tremendous headache, in her upper jaw and between her eyes. The ache in her upper jaw was obvious; she needed to feed. But the pain in her forehead was unexpected. And almost impossible. For vampires, most pain only comes from their jaws. Not their heads.

A tan face with gray eyes and long black hair sweeping against broad shoulders, poked out when the door opened a crack.

"Ugh. Wrench, it's too early for this," he mumbled, turning his head around to look at his black alarm clock. The big red numbers said seven o five.

Wrench rolled her brown ruby specked eyes. "I simply don't care," she snarled, giving him a dork stamp on his forehead. "We need to get a lot of stuff done today anyway." Her grumpy mood softened, and she gently patted his muscular arm, and let his door swing shut. She gracefully walked down the stairs, jumping from the fourth step from the bottom, hearing the silent thud as she landed. Tanya Mai, but everyone calls her Wrench, had a box tucked under her arm, and headed for the mail outbox next to the soda machines in the main lobby of the work shop. She paused when she stood in front of the box, fishing out an envelope from her pocket. She groped for a pen in her other pocket, opened the card and scribbled her name inside the flap.

She smiled. It was Meredith Sulez's birthday in two days, and she prayed it would get to her house the day before her birthday. Meredith Sulez, with her tall frame, long brown hair and olive skin, was the only girl Wrench was friends with, except Bonnie, a small girl with short red curls and a pixie like frame and creamy skin. Wrench wanted to thank both for being so wonderful to her. Even with Elena Gilbert gone, she still felt alone since Zane had changed completely when his best bud died and he kept to himself a lot, and now she was practically alone here, even in her own shop. So she had packed a lavender and sage smelling candle kit in the box for Bonnie and a beautiful jacket embroidered with gemstones along the rims of the pockets and collar.

Wrench had just put the package and card in the mailbox when a gentle hand squeezed her shoulder.

"Tanya, can you work with me today, please?" It was Zane.

And he looked so tired. Losing a best friend had taken it's toll on the poor guy. He had changed completely since Conner O'Donnell was killed by a vampire. Zane slept less, and he used to sleep all the time. He was always the one to crack a joke around the boys, but now he stayed quiet, and often wept over his loss. His face seemed paler, too, and Wrench recently found out that he didn't eat much anymore either, so his great build was losing a bit of it's magnificence. His gray eyes used to be filled with so much recklessness and happiness. Now all she saw was pain and suffering.

Wrench nodded, answering his question, and trailed behind Zane as he shuffled toward his workshop. His shop was messier than Wrench's. There was more grease spraying the ground than her shop, and tools littered the counters and benches.

Zane grabbed a screwdriver and said in a small voice, "This car's engine flew into flames after the owner tried to start the car, and the ar conditioning is not runnin' right." Wrench immediately got to work.

They both wroked for what seemd like forever to them, and every now and then Zane would stop working and shed a few tears, wiped them away, then resumed his work. Wrench would watch him run around the shop and work so hard when it was obvious he wasn't feeling good, so after about four hours of working, she stopped him and said, "Zane, go take a break. You're not in the mood to finish this. Let me do it," she whispered to him. Zane almost seemed to nod, but instead he shook his head, making his small ponytail come apart slightly. Strands of black hair fell in front of eyes.

"No, no. I can do this. I'm juts not feeling too hot today. I'm down under the weather, but I'll be okay," he murmured, gripping her shoulders softly. He tried a tight smile. "I'll be okay, really."

"I'm not really convinced, dude. You need to take a break. I don't mind doing this myself," she insisted, giving him a push towards the door that led to the rain covered parking lot. "I can get this done faster than you can. And if Dan asks, tell him that you already finished and I'm just cleaning up."

Zane had finally got to the frame of the door, but he spun around and stared at Wrench square in the face.

"Look," he started, eyes on the ground. "You have no idea how much you've done to me since..." His face cracked a little, but he continued. "Well...you know. And...I just want to thank you." He buried his face in her shoulder and started to cry softly.

"Oh, Zane. C'mon, man. Don't cry. It's okay, man. It's okay," she soothed, rubbing his back. Wrench never minded it when one of the boys cried. Zane used to be tough as nails when he worked here before Wrench showed up, but then he grew into a big softie, and he wept a lot when Conner was killed. He never found comfort in any other of the boys. Only Wrench.

Zane's sobs settled, but he kept his head on her shoulder for just a little while longer, smelling the fragrance of Wrench's long, curly black hair. She wafted his own hair, and it smelled like it always did. Strong and sexy, with a hint of his natural male musk. But only Wrench's nose could sniff out that stuff. Why couldn't she? She was a five hundred year old vampire for crying out loud.

Zane lifted his forehead off her shoulder, but she used her hands and placed them on the side of his temples, guiding his face down to rest right above her eyebrows. Tears brimmed her own eyes, but she hid them with her hair and Zane's hair mingled together in front of each other's faces.

"I know it's hard to believe it, Zane. Really I do," she said quietly, hugging his chest. "Is there anything that I can do that'll help?" She looked at him.

Zane's cheeks were wet, and he looked like his face was going to crack again, but he grinned slightly, and shook his head. "No. I'll be okay," he answered back. His own long arms encircled her shoulders, his strong chin resting on her hair. They both held on tightly for what seemed like forever until Zane pulled back and rubbed his eyes, looking slightly embarrassed.

"You still dig okay, Tanya. Really," he murmured, then walked out the door. Wrench watched him go, rain pelting his cheeks and soaking his hair.

She turned to the bench where a huge engine stood, rusty with age and black with grime.

Suddenly, she stopped mid step as she lost all the feeling in her body. Her mind was reeling and dizzy, so dizzy she didn't even see the ground coming up to greet her.

* * *

~Wrench was standing in the middle of a clearing, and it was raining so hard the drops were painful as they fell. She stood stiff in the middle of what seemed to be a fight. All around her, her brothers, Bonnie and Meredith, Matt and Elena, and even Zane and _Conner?!_, were fighting unseen forces. Yells and shouts echoed off the clearing, and someone was yanking on her sleeve. Damon. And he looked freaked.

"Tanya! Come on! We need to run!" he yelled. His black eyes were so...scared. Frightened. Wrench had never seen her brother, least of all Damon, to be so scared. Stefan has joined him, and he was pulling on Wrench's other arm.

"TANYA MAI! RUN! RUN, TANYA MAI!" Stefan shouted. He yanked and tugged against Wrench's hesitant body, and Damon was fighting something black and dark.

"RUN!" Both brothers finally got through to her, and she bolted after them.

There was something strange about the vision. It felt somehow real, like it had happened before and it was being repeated. Wrench didn't really know if there was a fight like the vision back before she changed, or even if after she did change, but it felt like it she had been in the fight before, and now she felt light headed as she ran faster after her brothers...

_Bam!_

It was like some unseen force pushing her head out of the vision, and it was very forceful. Wrench was thrown off her feet, and she crashed to the hard concrete floor, head first. She yelped quietly, and reached up behind her head to feel for a concussion. Her hand came out with dark smeared liquid. And a headache started to act up. Ouch.

Wrench was very still for a very long time, trying to figure out what the hell had happened before she got up from the floor and yanked out her cellphone. She scrolled down to the last number anyone could ever guess from her.

"Damon? I need to talk to you. It's really important," she breathed, feeling very heavy from the vision. The vision had drained her strength completely, and she felt like someone was suddenly blocking off all the blood in her brain.

"What is it, Tanya Mai?" Damon's voice, usually sarcastic and amused, now seemed as out of breath as she did.

Now that was something new.

**A/N:Yup, REALLY bad chapter, but it was all I had to write. I'm so sorry people. I'll try and write better on the next chapter. And like I said in a few previous chapters, some things will change, and what ever seems different is what I own. Everything else belongs to L.J. Smith. Thnx 4 all the reviews ppl!!! :-)**


	21. Chapter 21

~Wrench drove her car so fast that she knew some police car saw her. But she revved her engine faster, stomping on the gas pedal hard with her shoe, almost breaking it. Her knuckles were white as her grip on the steering wheel tightened, burning rubber as she swerved into the McCullough's house. Bonnie stood at the door, waiting anxiously. Wrench stepped out of her car, taking long strides toward the small girl. Bonnie walked forward to lightly hug the immortal, and asked in her small, tinkly voice, "Did you bring what I asked you to bring?"

Wrench held up the grocery bag that hung from her long fingers, swinging it back and forth.

"Yup; candles and bottled water. Just what you had asked for," she said unemotional.

Wrench regretted ever doing things for people. And a lot has happened since Meredith's birthday. Bonnie and Meredith had explained everything to Wrench with excruciating detail.

Meredith hadn't want to celebrate her birthday because her birthday was the day her grandfather got attacked by a vampire. Meredith, Vicki Bennett, Caroline Forbes, Sue Carson, and Bonnie all were at Meredith house, having fun when they tried a seance with contacting Elena because of a vision Bonnie had about Elena. The party had been ruined however, as Sue Carson was killed and Elena had asked Bonnie to bring back Stefan because of a New Power in town. A few nights later, Bonnie had called up Wrench and asked her to bring the necessary items for a summoning ritual.

Wrench had nearly thrown a tantrum when Bonnie called her and asked her to join herself, Meredith and Matt Honeycutt in a summoning spell. Wrench hesitantly agreed knowing she was going to regret everything later.

Bonnie invited Wrench inside her home, surprising Bonnie's parents. They were immediately entranced by Wrench's make believe beauty, and they treated her very sweetly, offering her anything they had. Wrench almost smirked when Bonnie's mother said cheerfully,"You're welcome here anytime." Soon Matt and Meredith arrived, and the four of them ate dinner at Bonnie's place, though no one had much of an appetite.

After Bonnie's parents went off to bed, the remaining four found themselves in Bonnie's room, watching Bonnie draw a chalk circle around an earthenwere bowl with a burning fire, three candles standing behind the bowl. Meredith and Matt and Wrench sat behind the circle as Bonnie unfolded a napkin containing Stefan's blood they had found in the old crypt where the fight with Katherine took place, letting the flakes fall into a wineglass full of water. The water turned rusty pink.

Bonnie opened another napkin and three pinches of Stefan's crisp, wavy hair went into the fire along with three drops of the water.

Bonnie recited the spell three times aloud:

_Swift on the heel thou comest,  
Thrice summoned by my spell,  
Thrice troubled by my burning,  
Come to me without delay._

Bonnie sat back on her heels, and said nothing more.

"Now what do we do?" Wrench asked, leaning forward on her haunches.

Bonnie shrugged. "I don't know. The book just says to wait until the middle candle burns down to the pin," she said, gesturing to the middle candle behind the bowl where a pin was stuck to the candle.

"And then what?" Meredith asked.

"I guess we'll find out when it happens."

* * *

~Wrench was simply letting her mind wander when suddenly Bonnie gasped. Bonnie's pretty face went blank, and Wrench instantly launched herself into Bonnie's mind, slipping into her connection.

It was Stefan's voice when the connection was made.

_Bonnie?_

_Stefan! It's you! It worked!_

_Bonnie, what have you done? And why is my sister there?_

Wrench mentally sighed. _So much for brotherly love._

_Elena told me to. Honestly, Stefan, she did. We're in trouble and we need-_

Bonnie found herself on her back after releasing the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Matt, Meredith, and Wrench were crouched over her, looking concerned.

"What happened? Did it work?" She offered Bonnie her hand. Bonnie sat up.

"It worked," Bonnie said. "I made contact with Stefan. I talked to him. Now all we have to do is wait and see if he's coming or not."

"Did you mention Elena?" Matt asked.

"Yes."

"Then he's coming," Wrench said coldly.

* * *

~The McCulloughs offered Wrench to spend the next night at their house, and Wrench refused. But Bonnie caught her arm before Wrench walked out the door after Bonnie's dad asked Wrench to fix his car for him.

"I'm scared, Tanya," Bonnie plead, using Wrench's real name. "What if something happens to me when I'm all alone? I want just a little protection." Even Bonnie's parents asked her to stay. They didn't need compulsion to tell her to stay.

Wrench had slept on the floor next to Bonnie's bed, three thick blankets acting as a mattress. Wrench slept with her senses wide open, hearing Bonnie's light breathing and the little scamper of critters outside the window. Wrench slept uneasily that night.

The next day Wrench drove Bonnie to school, and stayed in the parking lot, waiting in her Hummer as the school day dragged by.

Her day got so much better when a small black Ferrari and a black Porsche pulled into the parking lot, pulling up beside her Hummer. Both cars were tiny compared to Wrench's car.

Wrench's brothers, Damon and Stefan, climbed out of their cars, Damon tapping on the window of the giant red car. Wrench turned off her car radio, and jumped out, slamming the door shut.

Her brothers were very similar in appearances. But their views on life and personalities were so different it was almost funny.

Her younger brother, Stefan, had wavy black locks that liked to fall in front of his eyes, and those same eyes were as green as summer leaves. He had a pair of nice hips and a sensuous chin. His lips were the kind girls would pay a million dollars to kiss. His dark sunglasses sat abroad his long nose, and his jaw bones could make a sculpture go crazy over.

Damon had hair that was straight and soft, like the pelt of a doe, and his eyes were as black as night. His hips were a bit wider and his lips were every girl's dream. His mouth was as sensuous as Stefan's, and so was his jaw bones. His Ray Bans sat on his straight nose.

Stefan viewed life as soft and calm, only feeding on animals and trying to blend into the world as a normal teenager. But Damon's view was brutal and cruel, feeding on humans and even killing them. He blended in with the shadows, like Wrench.

Wrench stared at her brothers with a cold glare, and spoke. "Long time, brothers."

Damon smiled mischievously. "Not that long, _mi sorella. __Come lei è stato?"_

_"Meglio ora che lei due non seguono costantemente la femmina bionda," _she spit, scrunching her face in disgust at the thought of Elena Gilbert. Stefan became slightly angry and hissed at her. Damon cocked his head to the side.

"Now, now. Don't be so rude," Damon scolded, lips twitching on his face. Wrench threw him the finger.

"Very feminine gesture. Did you recently learn it from your band of naughty boys?"Damon said silkily, and chuckled when Wrench's face darkened to a light hue of pink. "So lady like."

"Why don't you and Stefan just go to hell and leave me alone while your here?" Wrench said, getting in Damon's face. Their noses nearly touched. Their chests heaved up and down slowly, touching each other now and then. Damon didn't even blink when Wrench snapped her canines in his face.

Stefan's voice broke the feud between the two dark immortals. "Give it a rest, guys. Let's not fight while we're here, Damon. Just let her be." But Damon nor Wrench even glance at him.

Damon raised a hand to Wrench's face. She flashed her fangs in warning, nipping at that hand, but Damon withdrew his hand and reached up again. His eyes bore into Wrench's soul, searching every corner of her blackened heart and loveless soul. That blackness melted through her chocolate-rubied eyes, and his Power tenderly tickled her head, reading her thoughts and memories when he and Stefan were gone.

Damon's hand caught a stray curl in Wrench's eye, and gently took it between his fingers, twirling it around his index finger. He let the curl bounce and spring back, before kissing it lightly. He put it back in it's place, in the corner of her left eye. Damon's lips twitched slightly as he saw Wrench's muscles uncoil slightly, relaxing under Damon's soft touch when his fingers brushed her forehead.

"I guess even you have a soft spot for your own brothers. And don't deny it either, my beauty queen," he whispered before Wrench could say something back. She tried stepping out of his reach, but his hands shot out, catching her arms in his iron grip.

Damon did the most shocking thing ever. He leaned his forehead against hers, eyes closed. His head was tilted at an angle that if he leaned down further, he could easily kiss her without their noses colliding.

"I don't deny anything except living," Wrench whispered back, venom dripping in her voice. Wrench balled her hands into fists, ready to take a swing at him, but his strong mind overcame hers, and she was trapped under his control.

"I'm sure," he murmured, his breath caressing her cheek like wind. His breath smelled sweet, human sweet, and the scent made Wrench shiver at the thought of draining a human of blood.

"You know what I mean, Damon Salvatore. Now let me go," she snarled. Damon slitted his eyes, watching her eyes go dark and heavy with anger. He did that thing where his smile was their for one second and then it disappeared. His hands slowly dropped form her arms, freeing her mind from his.

She took two steps back, walking back until her back hit her car. Stefan had probably watched the whole thing, thought he was on his cell phone talking to someone. Mrs. Flowers probably.

Wrench kept looking at Damon, watching him look her up and down. His eyes skimmed over her again, speculating her as if he was buying a horse.

"You haven't changed a bit," he said softly.

"Neither have you, apparently," she shot back, crossing her arms and looking away.

Her attention was diverted as Bonnie, Matt, and Meredith all came running out of the school double doors, excited and anxious faces getting closer and closer. Meredith was the first to reach the group, and she gave Wrench a quick hug before turning to Stefan.

"Okay. You're here. What do we do now?" she asked. Wrench realized that Bonnie was staring at Damon and his car with appreciation. Wrench towed her away and helped her into her Hummer.

Stefan was saying, "..and the boarding house is much safer to talk. Let's go. Damon, park your car behind the boarding house so no one would see your car. Tanya, I'll see ya at the boarding house."

With a slight nod, she pulled out of the parking lot, and shot out down the street behind Damon's car.


	22. Chapter 22

~Wrench slumped down onto the huge hay pile, interlocking her fingers behind her neck, twisting and popping her ankles.

"So I guess Katherine was attracted to the place because she knew this town was crawling with Power, and you know what they say: The more Power you have, the more you can control," she said lazily. "But what I don't get is why something new is scampering around the town. This place is a dump." She shuffled her foot among the debris of stray straw, making dust fly around in the air.

"Remember that this place has had blood spilled upon it for a very long time," Stefan replied. His long arms were crossed over his chest. "The Power within the ground in which the blood soaked through had remained, and it's calling is irresistable." Matt and Meredith and Bonnie all nodded.

"I know that, moron. I've been here longer than all of you," Wrench snapped, her glare turning cold and hard as she looked at her brother. "I was there when I witnessed the battle of Fell's Church. I'm not that stupid." Damon snickered, and Wrench threw him a dark look.

She continued. "Anyway, I saw the battle rage on, and I felt all the Power coming from the fresh blood. After a few years, the blood had soaked through the earth, but the Power was so strong that I..."

"What about the church?" Damon asked, his voice cutting her off. "Didn't the church burn down or something?" Wrench was about to answer, but Bonnie spoke up.

"Yeah, it did. But it was rebuilt right on top of most of the ground where all the blood used to be." Wrench sighed and shook her head. Any more interruptions and she was going to get mad. Real mad. She tried again.

"And so when the..."

Meredith spoke up. Interrupted again. "And so when the church was built, and Honoria was laid to rest there, no one could ever disturb her. But the Power of the battle ground was too strong to resist." Wrench snarled under her breath. Damon smirked, hearing her snarl. Wrench began _again._

"And because Katherine was so attracted to..."

Damon came forward. "Because Katherine was so attracted to this place, it drew the attention of..."

Wrench drowned out his voice, making her way to her car. _Damn you straight to the fiery pits of hell, Damon,_ she thought to him. She knew he interrupted her on purpose, just wanting to annoy her. The group was just going to have to find the new Power without her. She scrambled into the driver's seat and closed the door when her phone tinkled, reminding her she had a new text message. It was from Bonnie.

_Why did u leave???_ it said.

Wrench ignored it, and started her engine. _That's it, Tanya Mai,_ she thought to herself._ No more doing things for people. You'll just end up hurting yourself. Just go home and sleep. And don't help them again. No matter how much they try and make you._

Wrench hurt her head with hard rock music, shaking her hair and even singing along to it, trying a little too hard to forget what happened in the barn. That always occurred. Always a shadow. Always hidden.

Wrench stepped out of her car. Along the way, walking to the set of stairs leading up to the dorms, her shoulder was bumped painfully as Tanner brushed by her. And she froze.

Tanner looked different somehow. His hair seemed more brown than ever, and his green eyes were brighter than before. His muscles stood out more underneath his thick long sleeved shirt, and he looked taller. But something else was amiss. He radiated Power, rolling off him in waves so intense that it made Wrench's stomach churn.

Wrench stood there, frozen and dumbstruck, not exactly knowing what to think. Tanner?! With Power running through his veins?! Is that even possible?! All that Power running through him; fresh Power filling every pore of his...wait a minute.

Fresh Power?

Uh oh. Not good.

Her brain was on hold for just a moment, trying to think back to when she remembered Tanner to have all this Power within himself. Power. Where did Power some from anyway?

Wrench smelled something all to familiar. She bolted up the stairs, praying that this time it wasn't Zane. She raced up the steps, taking two at a time, sniffing the air at every intake of breath. She zoomed around the corner and soon she stood in front of Johnny Blitz's door, one of the new guys. Zach was clinging to the door frame, crying so hysterically he flung himself into Wrench's arms. They both fell to the floor, Zach's weeping so loud he didn't even sound like a guy, head on her shoulder. The smell was strong.

Wrench gave Zach over to Dan's open arms, and Wrench went inside. The room was supposed to be dark gray, but red splatters decorated the walls, the far wall had little scribbles in the blood stained wall. The bed in the corner was over turned, sheets torn, pillow down covering the carpet. His dresser was scratched to splinters, the drawers open and dangling like they had been thrown open. Even the ceiling dripped with blood, the sound making the truth reality. Quiet sobbing came from the corner.

Wrench squinted he eyes, and when her eye sight focused, she felt tears ting her eyes.

Zane sat int eh corner next to the window, his face torn in agony. His cheeks were soaked in tears and blood. And he held something bloody in his arms. He was rocking back and forth, hysterical sobs ripping out his throat. The body of Johnny Blitz was in his arms, and his body was so blood soaked that she hardly saw his face.

Wrench was heart broken. She knew Johnny was Zane's new best bud, and Zane treated him like a another little brother. The kid had just turned eighteen, and she even heard Dan planning on giving him a promotion for all his hard work.

Wrench choked on a sob, and crept forward slowly, sitting herself in front of him. Zane was too busy to notice her. He kept rocking himself and Johnny's dead carcass in his arms. Wrench knew that this was just too much for him. She held out her arms.

"Zane," she whispered gently. "Please give him to me. This is too much for you to handle. One person can only take so much." She reached out for Johnny's dead body.

Zane jerked the body back, away from her arms, and cried harder. Zane may have looked like a bad boy, with his love for bikes and leather jackets. But he really was someone who cared deeply. Wrench felt her cheeks get wetter.

"Zane; please. This is too much for you," she explained. She stroked his arm, soothing his muscles. Or tried to. He simply looked at her.

"I...I don't know wha...what happened. I...walked in...and...and..." The poor guy couldn't finish. He just kept crying.

Wrench shook her curls. "No, you don't have to tell me anything. Just give him to me. I promise they'll take good care of him." She squeezed his arm. Zane's face didn't show any change.

"Zane," she said quietly. "Please."

Zane handed over Johnny's body slowly and painfully, sobs ripping through his throat, and Wrench gently took him away. Zane stood up on shaky legs, watching Wrench.

"Please be good with him," he croaked, wiping away salty tears. Wrench nodded slowly, and sat down with Johnny's body in her lap.

"Go get an ambulance," she ordered gently. Zane stumbled out. Dan was taking to Zach outside the door, completely blocked from Wrench's view.

Then..._BAM!_

The sweet smell was intoxicating, filling her nostrils with the fragrance of human blood. Wrench searched his body, finding two puncture wounds in his neck. It was a deep wound; it had cut open a large vein, and warm blood gushed from the puncture wounds. It dripped onto her hands, dripping to the floor. She lifted her fingers to her face.

The taste exploded in her mouth. The blood was fresh, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes old, but it still wasn't long enough to dry or become stale. The blood was so _sweet._ Oh, God. So...good...Have to...drink...So...hungry...

She lowered her head to the puncture wounds, feeling the ache in her gums intensify. Her fangs came out, extending far and long. She slid her fangs inside the wounds, her fangs fitting perfectly, if perhaps a bit longer, hearing the tear in the vein as her canines pierced the vein even more. Sweet heaven. The blood was so metallic, but the sweet smell and taste of it washed the metallic taste of it away, and she reveled in the hot, fresh blood going down her throat.

Wrench sucked deep, deep, shivering with pleasure of feeding on Johnny's dead carcass. God, this must be how all the rest of the boys tasted like. Maybe Zane would taste sweeter because he so damn handsome. And he smelled so good, too...

She growled when Johnny was drained completely, and she raised her head, blood dripping down her chin slowly. She shivered when the blood fell down her jaw from both sides from the corners of her lips, sharp pleasure shooting up her back. Good God, it felt good.

_No wonder Damon does this,_ she thought, closing her eyes, still shuddering. _I wonder if Damon sometimes gets that sharp pleasure spike when the victim's blood is sweet enough._

Wrench licked her lips like a satisfied cat, flicking her tongue across her canines. She suddenly wondered what it would feel like to have sex and drink blood at the same time. Would the pleasure intensify, or still be the same? No matter what, though, she felt so alive when the boost of Johnny's blood filled her veins with Power. she kept thinking the same thing over and over again.

_Zane...in bed...so much blood and pleasure..._

An ambulance team arrived right then and there and, so fast they didn't see her, she sprinted to her room, shut the door, and sank to the carpet in front of the door. She started to lick the blood of her fingers and lips, not wanting to waste any of it. She was sucking her fingers clean when someone knocked on the door. She stiffened.

"One moment!" she shouted, running to the bathroom. She scrubbed her hands and face clean, then opened the door. Dan stood there, looking sullen and heart broken.

"Tanya, I want you and all the boys to know that this place will be shut down until further notice. And until the murderer is caught, I will rent out a hotel for four months for all of us to stay in. Please inform the boys immediately." And without another sound, he turned on his heel and walked out.

Wrench walked out her door, and went down the steep stairs to confront the boys about their place. But first things first. Find Tanner and talk to him about his new supply of Power. She reached out with her Power, and found him standing next to the concession counters, talking in low voices with Blake and Jake.

Wrench pushed her way through the group of boys, told Blake and Jake she needed a moment alone with him...

Then slapped him across the face.


	23. Chapter 23

~Wrench slapped Tanner. And it wasn't the least bit soft. Her hand bled on her palm after hitting him. She saw Tanner's own blood rise to the surface of his skin, and Tanner's head whipped to the side. He flinched when he gingerly touched the new bruise blooming on his cheek.

"You bastard! I will kill you for what you did!" she screamed, and gripped the fabric of his cotton shirt with both hands. Throwing her weight to the side, he slammed into the far wall, back first. The other boys were too busy with the commotion outside that they had no interest to what was going on in the building.

Tanner got up to his feet, stumbling, before rushing her. She shoved her hand into his shoulder hard enough so that she heard his shoulder _pop!_ He screamed in pain, flying into the office door. The door broke into two, not able to cope with Tanner's heavy body. Even a hinge to the door went flying away.

"What the fuck, Salvatore?! I didn't do anything!" he yelled at her. She walked up to him, grabbed his throat, pushed his back to the nearest wall, and choked the daylights out of him.

"Don't play dumb with me, Hawkins! What did you do to Johnny?" she demanded. She had no idea how idea it was him. She just knew somehow. Every instinct in her pores were shouting out at her that he had something to do with the death of Johnny Blitz. In her peripherals, she saw the stretcher carrying the dead body away from the lot. Dan and the boys were crying and saying how they would miss the poor guy. Zane was sitting alone, crying his eyes out.

Tanner smiled through a pale face. Her hands were not long enough to encircle his throat completely, but they were strong enough to strangle him until he couldn't even breath through his nose. "And what makes you think I was the one who did it? Who knows? It could've been Borington for all we know." He gasped when her fingers dug into his neck more, drawing fresh blood right near his pulse.

"Don't you dare talk about Zane like that!" she snarled. Wrench's teeth were bared, and air was hissing out of her throat when she exhaled her breaths. "Me, and even you, of all people, know he never lay a finger on anyone. And your not going to start anything with me either!"

A black shadow spilt across the floor next to them. Both heads snapped up at the new comer.

Damon stood there, shocked, and Stefan stood behind him. Stefan looked more confused than shocked when he took in the torturing scene. Damon blinked, not really understanding his sister suffocating the hell out of a man older than her. Not that old; he was only twenty two. If she was alive she would be about nineteen.

"What is going on in here?" Stefan asked calmly, eyes on Wrench.

Tanner chuckled, though it was croaked and broken. "Looks like your babysitters arrived right on time, Salvatore," he purred. She growled, a deep rumbling sound, and, ignoring her brothers, kneed his "equipment." Hard.

Tanner yelped, and aimed his nails at her cheek. She swiped it away. For a better view, she forced a palm up his chin, making him look up at the ceiling, and kept her hadn there. His scalp tore when a fragment of the little window of the broken door sliced into his head. Blood seeped down the shattered door and ran through her fingers.

Wrench laughed evilly. "You're such a baby, yourself, Hawkins. I guess you had someone else change your diaper when you were young, huh? Answer my question. Why did you kill Johnny?" Wrench knew her brothers were watching it all. And listening.

"How the hell should I know? I barely knew him," Tanner spit. His saliva dribbled down his chin, and a mixture of blood was in it, too. She ground his teeth together with the force of her hand shoving up his chin, just to revel in the sound him screaming.

"Answer me, dammit!" Wrench choked him harder, hearing the sweet little crackling of the tips of his teeth breaking off. Tanner squirmed.

"Let me go, Salvatore. Dan will fire you if you kill me, so I think you better let me go," he muttered. He could barely talk through his blood stained lips. "They will think you're the one who killed Johnny. Then who will they blame the crime on?"

"ANSWER ME THEN!" she screamed, pressing her weight against him to stop his struggles.

"Salvatore! What the hell is going on?!" Dan's sharp voice even made her brothers flinch. Dan stormed into the building, swept past Wrench's brothers, and pulled Wrench off his one and only son. Wrench flushed hotly, stepping back a pace so Tanner could fly into his father's arms.

Wrench backed away to stand in front of her brothers. Damon placed a hand on her shoulder, the same hand that a lapis lazuli ring shown in the gray sky against the paleness of his skin, and his fingers were firm when they lightly squeezed.

Dan bent over Tanner, rubbing his shoulders, saying soothing words to his son. Tanner's eyes flicked up, meeting Wrench's. His dark green eyes bore into her mind and body, making her shudder with pure fear. He was looking so sinister and evil right then, that even Damon flinched when he saw the look Tanner gave Wrench.

Dan stormed up to Wrench. "What the hell were you thinking, Salvatore?! You almost killed him! Not only did you damage his jawbone, you messed up his teeth, and he's even bleeding on his neck! What made you do it anyway?!" he roared. His muscles in his arms were taught and veins appeared near his elbow.

Wrench stepped back, shocked. "But...he..." she started, but Dan continued.

"Why would you do that, Tanya? You said you were going to try and change your feelings towards my son," Dan shouted even louder, pointing violently at his son. Tanner had no balance as he tried to right himself, and his jaw was dangling at an odd angle. His neck gushed great amounts of blood, and bruises bloomed where her hands had choked him only a moments ago.

She stumbled over her words a bit. "Dan...he attacked me first..." she lied, but Dan didn't buy it. He gazed back at his son, and Wrench felt his sympathy towards his son. She suddenly felt bad for Dan. She hadn't mean to hurt his only family.

Dan had lost his wife two years after giving birth to Tanner, and Dan had loved her very much because she used to be the ultimate beauty queen of the high school they went to together. They had met at a dance, talked a lot after that, and soon they were sweethearts until they married a few years before Tanner was born. Annie, that was Dan's wife's name. She was beautiful, with milky chocolate hair and the most perfect set of blue eyes that sparkled like sapphires. She had the body of a model, long and lean, and that feature was in Tanner's body structure.

But Annie had fallen very ill after Tanner's birth. She had found out that she had an incurable disease, and the doctors said she only had a few weeks left to live. Dan was heart broken, and spent every last minute together. They walked along the beach, strolled through the park with baby Tanner carried by his father. They even drove around the state with no place to go, just to be a happy family.

And when it was Annie's time, she lay in the hospital after collapsing on the stairs in their home, and Dan held her hand the whole time, from the house to the hospital. Annie smiled painfully, and stroked his cheek with a small pale hand like he used to love, and passed away right in front of him. Dan didn't leave her, though. He just stared at her with sad eyes. Dan was only thirty one years old, but he looked so old when he watched his beloved wife died.

Tanner had no idea until years later when Dan told him the truth because Tanner had no idea why Dan always cried, hugging a picture of his lover. Dan's favorite picture was when they were married, huddled close and smiling like they were so content with being in each other's embrace. Wrench had always envied him because he had something to remember. Wrench had nothing to remember except the pain she felt when she was abandoned.

Wrench felt tears sting her eyes, and she looked at her brothers. They looked back at her, green and black eyes scanning her face. Damon's eyes were stone, cold like ice, hard as rock. Stefan's eyes held no emotion. But his did seem like he would cry as well; they looked wet.

Wrench felt fingers tickle her mind, and turned to Damon. His lips twitched, but it was so small that no one could see it except for Wrench. She knew what he was doing, and she forced him from her head with a push. She dipped her head, her peripherals watching Dan as he knelt over Tanner. The tears she had fought to keep back won the battle, and they fell down her cheeks slowly. She couldn't stand being around her brothers anymore. She jogged back outside, and sat down beside Zane on a low bench next to the cargo house, just wanting his presence.

Zane wept hysterically, the sobs breaking his breathing pattern, eyes so wet and watery it was almost impossible for a guy to do that. His shoulders shook, and his face was pale. Large, purple bruises circled his eyes, red rimmed and exhausted.

Wrench touched his shoulder. Zane collapsed into her arms, and she ended up cradling his head in her stomach. His arms were locked around her waist. The rain covered ground soaked his jeans, but he simply didn't care.

"Why is this happening, Tanya Mai?" he asked, his voice muffled by her stomach. She stroked his hair, kissed the top of it. "Why? In the name of God, please tell me why."

"I don't know," was all she said. She never minded Zane calling her by her real name.

Sometimes, Zane and Wrench would simply hold onto each other when the other was in a stage where they just needed a friend. They were very close to each other, and Zane was especially fond of her. He had fallen for her sweet charm and wise knowledge that he just couldn't resist her company. Though best friends, Wrench often treated Zane like a child when he was upset, and Zane couldn't care less if he was resting his head on her shoulder or if he wrapped his arms around her neck and held on tightly for dear life in front of the other boys.

Once, while Zane was having a really bad day, Tanner spotted the two friends and Zane's head was being rocked back and forth slowly on Wrench's shoulder. Tanner just laughed and called Zane a mama's boy. Wrench had nearly killed him when she got her hands on him for being so thoughtless and selfish. The two were inseparable.

Zane and Wrench were surrounded by lots of people, but they didn't really care. She rocked him softly, rubbing his shoulders. Zane's grip on her increased, and she hugged him tighter.

"It's okay, buddy. Jut get it out. Let it go. Just let it go," she murmured in his ear calmly. Her fingers combed his hair in a comforting way, but he didn't relax his sobbing once. She ended up getting tears herself, and they fell onto his hair.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N:Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated, and I know the story is getting really boring, but just think about it. Who do you think killed Johnny? Hint:It's the same guy who killed Conner. Can anyone guess who?? :-P**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**

~Wrench held Zane in her arms tightly, rocking him slowly. Zane's shaking stopped, however his sobs never slowed. He kept his head buried in her shoulder, breaths broken by his weeping. Wrench felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she looked up. Stefan looked pained at his sister's torn face. Damon was behind him, his own face a mask of no expression. But Wrench swore she thought she saw something in his eyes that was something like sympathy. Wrench turned back to Zane, face in his hair, smelling the scent of his black locks. The mood of the entire place was having an effect on her brothers, which was next to impossible when it came to Damon.

"Tanya," Damon whispered. She looked at him. "We need your help. And this will be the last thing we will ask tonight. I promise." Zane heard this, and tightened his grip on Wrench's waist.

"Tanya Mai, don't leave me alone. Please," he begged. This was a cry from the heart, and it tore open her ear drums and shattered her heart.

"I need to, buddy. I'm so sorry," she murmured, gripping his shoulders to push him back. But he was stubborn enough to hang on. "I know it hurts, Zane. Really, I do. But I need to take care of some business. I promise I'll be back soon, though." She used her immortal strength, and with Damon and Stefan's help, Zane was pried away from her, and Zach was called to take Zane to the hotel the shop's employees were staying in. Wrench watched them drive away in Zach's green Ford Escape.

"We need a ride to Vicki Bennett's house," Damon said when she asked them what her brothers wanted. "We think she has some precious information to finding the killer of Sue Carson."

Wrench nodded. "Yeah, I heard about that." She took one last look around her, at the crime scene, and at Tanner who was being treated from Wrench's physical beatings. "Okay. Just give me directions along the way." Her brothers nodded, and Wrench retrieved her keys from the employee office, and climbed into her Hummer. Stefan and Damon hopped in as soon as she unlocked her doors.

But a tan hand came down over the driver'sdoor. Tanner stood next to her door, head bandaged. His jaw even had stitches and old blood was sticking to his lip.

"I won't forget this evening, Salvatore. You will regret this," he hissed through clenched teeth. Wrench heard her brothers snarl at him defensively, Damon in the back and Stefan in the passenger seat. Now that was something new to Wrench. She never knew that the crime committed on the shop was having such a strong effect on them.

"Don't worry. I'll be coming back for more. Because I know you had something to do with Johnny and Conner's murders. I may be a girl, but I'm smarter than you are, asshole. Now get away from my car." With a loud roar of her engine, she revved away from the shop, not caring if her car's enormous tires ran over his foot.

"So, _sorella,_" Damon started after a few minutes of disturbing silence, leaning over his...wait. He wasn't wearing a seat belt. Typical for Damon. "Why were you choking the holy daylights out of Tanner Hawkins?"

Wrench snarled, gripping the steering wheel with an iron hold. "That is none of your business, Damon," she muttered through clenched teeth.

She glanced him smiling in the back through the rear view mirror. "It looked like everyones business by the way he looked," he replied with a wider grin. Stefan threw him a dark look from the passenger's seat. Wrench snarled again. Damon chuckled.

"_Sorella_, don't ignore me. I'll just keep pestering you until you..."

"I thought he had something to do with Johnny Blitz's murder! Now will you just shut up?!" she shouted at him through bared teeth as the car's wheels screeched on the road. The car swerved and neatly parked next to the truck that belonged to Matt. She got out, and Damon whipped around the car, pecking his sister's hair. She scrubbed it out with her hand, groaning in disgust. Damon was laughing as he followed Stefan around to the side of the big house.

Matt, Meredith, and Bonnie had beaten them there, staring up at a big bay window that smelled of lavender.

"Vicki's parents won't let us in. So we had to wait for you guys. Mr. Bennett is looking like he needs aging cream, and Mrs. Bennett is drunk," Matt said, and he smiled gently at Wrench in acknowledgement. She nodded her head back, and her face grew cold again.

"Damon, can you make them sleep so we can talk to Vicki?" Stefan asked with no emotion in his voice.

Damon turned to Wrench. "Only if my sister helps me," he mused, flashing his teeth. She smacked his shoulder.

"Just knock them out, Damon. I don't have all day, you know," she muttered.

"Please; for me," he begged, fluttering his big brother eye lashes. Wrench sighed, then nodded. The two immortals reached their minds inside the house, probing aroudn the halls and windows until they found Mrs. Bennett in the living room, a bottle of light red rum in one hand, tears running down her face. Mr. Bennett was sitting on the othe end, watching the TV with no particular interest.

Wrench and Damon reached into their heads, Wrench making Mrs. Bennett very drowsy while Damon simply knocked Mr. Bennett out with his Power. Mrs. Bennett's eyes drooped, going against Wrench's command, before Wrench's weak compulsion put her into a deep sleep. She withdrew her Power.

"They're asleep," Damon said, slightly amused. He was always amused at times like this.

The group looked at Vicki's window, and Wrench felt Stefan's Power zoom out and draw the poor girl to the window. And when Vicki opened the curtains of the window, Wrench cringed at the sight. Vicki's eyes were glassy and foggy, and her skin was chalky and pale. Dark rings hung under her brown doe eyes, and she looked thinner than the last time Wrench saw her, and it was only two months ago when Vick's dad needed his car battery replaced. Vicki had come along with ehr father, and while Wrench worked, she kept staring at Vicki with a worried expression. The girl stared at Wrench with a really creepy smile and huge, scared eyes. As though something was possessing her.

"Oh, Vicki. What have they done to you, sweet thing?" she whispered, shaking her head. Whatever was messing with Vicki's mind was a maniac to make a girl look like she was possessed.

Stefan commanded, "Vicki, open the window." And a robotic Vicki opened the window. Stefan placed a hand on the window sill, waiting. Vicki let him in, and Stefan vaulted over the window sill, followed by Meredith and Matt. Damon and Bonnie remained outside.

But Vicki was staring at Wrench, and a girlish giggle bubbled out of her chest. The laugh was croaked and broken, though, like a crazy person who just got away with murder. The smile was fake, too. It was so hideous and gruesome that Wrench flinched again at the sound.

"I'd knew you'd come back for me," she said hoarsely with a yellow toothed grin. She stepped aside. "Come in, friend." Invited in a vampire. Like a house guest.

With a frown, Wrench flew inside, sitting on the bed next to a shaky Vicki, Vicki's hand locked tightly around Wrench's hand. Vicki's grip was so hard that Wrench felt Vicki's nails dig into her skin, drawing blood. Wrench tried to loosen the grip, but Vicki kept a good hold on her. A mere human was keeping a five hundred year old immortal to her side by simply gripping her hand. Wrench felt like a weakling next to Damon and even Stefan because of Vicki's hold on her. Stefan fed on animals, Damon fed on humans, but Wrench barely got by with bags of cold, raw meat from the grocery store.

Vicki's glassy eyes were looking straight ahead at nothing but the opposite blank wall where a straw hat hung on the corner of her bamboo mirror. The vanity table had different colored lipsticks ranging from dark blood to neon yellow, black to dark purple.

_Must be for Halloween costumes_, Wrench guessed as Stefan sat himself on the other side of Vicki. He gently took her chin and turned her doe brown eyes to his green as leaves in the summer sun eyes.

"You shouldn't be here," Vick croaked. Her voice was all wrong. Cracked and too high pitched, like squeaking. "He's coming to get me. And he'll get you, too. Even you, Tanya Mai. You should be careful, yourself."

Meredith squatted on the floor next to Vicki, and patted her knee. Stefan just said: "Who?"

"Him. He comes to me in my dreams. He killed Sue." Her matter-of-fact tone made Wrench cringe by the way it sounded. More terrifying than any kind of histeria.

"Vicki, we've come to help you, honey," Wrench said gently. "EVerything's going to be alright now. We won't let him hurt you, I promise." Then Vicki's eyes flitted to hers.

Vicki stared Wrench up and down as if Wrench had become something unbelievable. Then burst into a hoarse mirth of laughter so horrible that Wrench had the voice to say, "Vicki, stop it." Then Vicki's laughs died to sobs, and her head was bowed and hunched.

"He's going to kill you all, Tanya Mai," she murmured with a shake of her head. "No one can fight him and live. No one. Not even you, Stefan."

"We need to know what he is and what he looks like so we _can_ fight him," Stefan said. "Tell me what he looks like."

"I can't see him in my dreams. He is a shadow with no face." Vicki's voice was a whisper.

"But you saw him at Caroline's house," Stefan insisted. Vicki's head whipped away sharply, and hid her face in Wrench's shoulder. "Listen, Vicki, I know you're frightened, but this is important, more important than you understand. We can't fight him unless we know what we're up against, and you are the only one, the _only_ one right now who has the information we need. You have to help us."

"I _can't_ remember..."

"I have a way to help you remember," Wrench said, cutting Vicki off. "Will you let me try?"

"Good luck, little sister," Damon commented, smirking. Wrench gave him a snarl before turning back to Vicki.

Vicki was still and quiet, and th eseconds crawled by slowly. Vicki's poor body sagged after a while, and her sigh was long. "Do whatever you want. I don't care. It won't make any difference."

Wrench gently touched her shoulder. "You're a very brave girl. Now look at me, Vicki. All I want you to do is just relax. Just look at me and relax." Her voice dropped to a soothing, lulling murmur, and soon her soft voice made Vicki's eyes close slowly, and her tense muscles smoothed out and softened.


	25. Chapter 25

**Playlist for Chapter:  
~Posibilities-Lykke Li  
~Contented-Roy Todd**

~The group left poor Vicki after Wrench had relaxed the girl into a deep, harmless sleep that not even the Other Power would enter her dreams. They were looking for a blond man with a long raincoat and electric blue eyes. Vaguely, Wrench remembered meeting someone like that back in Florence, but her brain couldn't put a finger on it. She drove her vehicle in silence, thinking about the last time she had seen the blond man. The man's description was very faint, and not very good, but at least she and her brothers had a slight idea.

Wrench shook her head, clearing her mind. She wasn't really in the mood to ponder her thoughts. Her memories always seemed to find a way back into her head and plague her for hours at a time just to torment her past when she pondered. So she concentrated on her driving back to the hotel the employees were staying for a few days. It was raining outside, and the air was cold and icy, huge droplets falling and crashing like precious glass to the ground.

She pulled into the parking lot, her loud engine roaring when she stopped. Clambering out of the car, she made her way to the lobby where some of the boys were waiting. Zane was among them, but he sat in front of a fire in the marble fireplace alone. The lobby of the hotel wasn't expensive, but it was nice enough to be a winter getaway lodge. Chandeliers with fake crystals hung from the ceiling, and the furniture was made of pure leather. The walls were a cappuccino tan, and the carpet was the color of cream.

Wrench greeted weach of the boys, getting pats on the back and one armed hugs. Then she quietly walked up behind Zane. His shoulders were sagging low, hair loose over his shoulders. Zane's skin was shivering from the nip of the cold wind, and Wrench laid a soft hand on his shoulder. Zane jumped a bit, and turned his head sharply, but relaxed when he saw Wrench.

"Hey, Wrench," he muttered. His eyes were red and heavy with purple bruises. He looked so tired. She sat down next to him, trying to soothe him with her massaging hand on his shoulder. Zane's heavy gaze turned back to the soft glowing fire, watching the flames dance and lick up the fire logs crowded together in the fire pit. Wrench watched the fire with him.

Dan came up behind them both, clearing his throat. Both engineers looked up at him, waiting for him to speak.

"Salvatore, may I have a brief word with you for a moment?" he asked, eyes focused on Wrench. With a hesitant gulp, she stood up, following Dan to the conventional breakfast area. Wrench had a good idea why Dan wanted to speak to her alone. Dan stood in the corner, away form eye and ear shot.

"Salvatore, I want a full story of why you attacked my son," he began, eyes stony and cold.

_Shit!_ Wrench had dreaded that specific question. She froze in her place, mind going through different options. She finally tried to stick to some of the truth. She bowed her head slightly in shame.

"I thought he had something to do with Johnny's death, sir. The only reason I thought so was that he didn't really seem to care about anything about the boys, and he only seems to want to focus on himself. So..." she shrugged.

Dan sighed. "Salvatore, I have tried to make you two be friends for a long time, and I don't want anymore fighting in this shop. But it seems that you two just won't get along. So...I need to tell you something." Dan wasn't a man to play around and joke with the other boys. He was always serious and concentrated on his facts and options. When ever Dan had options in front of him, he weighed each other carefully, looking forward into the future to look at the consequences.

"Until you and Tanner have made up and at least know how to be in the same room without killing one another, you are suspended from your job until I see improvement between you and my son." And he left Wrench there standing in the corner.

Wrench's world shattered to pieces. Her job was the only thing she had to hold onto. To look forward to each time she woke up. Her job was the best thing she could ever have accomplished. She had worked hard for her position in the shop, and for the first time in centuries, she had been welcomed to the shop as an idol and a good person and friend. She always paid Dan the rent for her room, and she passed the three initiation tests from the boys, and all the boys agreed she was better than all of them. She had worked there for six years, and was still able to live there because they never noticed that she never grew old. It was her home.

But now......the covered up pain that was hidden in her heart now broke free, and flooded her head with torture and numbness. Wrench gripped the wall with a hand, sliding to the floor, her bottom hitting the floor with a soft thud. But she didn't even feel that. She couldn't breathe; couldn't see; couldn't feel. All the meaning of life and matter, slipped from her fingers, and now she was alone.

Her face cracked, and tears spilled down her cheeks in large droplets. She curled up her knees into her chest, forming a ball, and laid her face on her folded arms. God, she was so upset she didn't even see Damon in the other corner watching her. Damon had followed her back to the hotel, and had witnessed the whole thing. Damon knew that messing with her in this bad mood wasn't a good idea, so he watched Tanya Mai with mute dread, face hard and icy. His black eyes held no amusement. Ever since coming to Fell's Church, he knew immediately that not just him and Stefan were lurking around in broad daylight. He followed the dark trail of very weak Power, and was very surprised to find his sister living there. He had probed her thoughts while she slept sometimes, and found she had been hiding in Fell's Church for two hundred years before finally revealing herself to broad daylight. And ever since, he had been having weird feelings about his sister he never even knew about.

Without disturbing his only sister's crying, Damon shook off his jacket, and walked up silently, slinging the jacket over her shoulders. He stroked her hair softly, observing his fingers pulling back on a curl before letting it spring back. He didn't say anything; he just stood there.

_Il pianto indossato, la sorella dolce. Nessune più lacrime. Suo più vecchio fratello suo qui,_ he said to her softly, using their Italian tongue to try and soothe her.

Stefan was calling Damon in his mind to meet up at Vicki's house, but something in Damon was telling him to at least try to ease Tanya Mai's pain. He bit his lip, reaching out with Power to find Zane, her human friend. After a few moments or probing, he followed the scent of Zane, and stalked up to him.

"Zane Borington?" he asked. Zane looked up and frowned at the black stranger.

"Yeah?" he replied after a moment of scanning the Italian vampire.

"I'm..." Damon knew Tanya Mai hadn't told Zane about her brothers, but he told the truth. "I'm Tanya Mai's older brother, Damon. You saw me earlier at the shop, and I think she needs you right now." Damon didn't understand his sister's nickname, Wrench, so he called her by her real name, Tanya Mai.

Zane didn't bother trying to figure out Damon as Tanya Mai's older brother. He simply stood and followed Damon to Tanya Mai's corner, and immediately dropped beside her. He put his arms around her.

"Hey, shh. Tanya Mai, it's okay. I'm here. Come here," he soothed, gathering her up in his lap. She clung to his shirt, sobbing so loudly that someone around the corner was bound to hear them and wonder what was wrong.

Damon stood next to them, statue still, speculating them. He crouched down, reaching out to touch his sister's hair. Wrench gripped his hand where his lapis ring sat, fingers digging into his palm. He gently probed her thoughts to find out why she was crying, and growled when he saw Dan saying she was temporarily fired because of a stupid human Tanner.

_It's no use, Damon,_ Tanya Mai said to him through her mind. _I knew something like this was going to happen. There's nothing you can do._

_I can force him to fire his own son. He shouldn't do this to you because your a worker. I've seen Tanner start many fights that spark between you two,_Damon replied. Damon leaned against the wall next to the two friends. Wrench was curled up in Zane's lap, her fingers gripping his shirt with enough force to keep him there for as slong as she didn't let go.

_Damon, please don't hurt him. It's Dan's job. And because I failed to be friends with his son, I...I..._

She couldn't even think straight because of her deep depression. She cried longer and even wailed so loud that Damon flinch at the sound.

_Tanya Mai, I don't want to leave you, but Stefan needs me. You can stay here with him, alright?_ Damon looked at Zane with speculating gazes, as if he didn't trust the boy.

_Okay. Thank you. When do you want your jacket back?_she teased. Damon's lip twitch just a bit.

_You can keep it. L'amo._

* * *

~It was a while before Wrench was asleep in Zane's arms in the hotel room Zane begged Dan to let Wrench stay in with him. He was laying on his back, and Wrench, with a tight T-shirt and black sweats on, lay curled up next to him, and both kids slept in separate beds after Wrench went to sleep in Zane's long arms. Zane's quiet snoring made Wrench begin to drift to sleep.

In her dreams, she was back to the strange garden like months before when her brothers had greeted her, with the flowers and crystal blue sky and the marble fountain sprouting water gently. Only, when she was smelling the wonderful fragrances of the flowers, she wore a black gown completely made of silk, and her feet were bare. Black ribbon was woven into her french braid, and onyx stones hung from a black sash at her waist. And she was greeted by someone new.

This time, it was Zane. His open white shirt showed off his muscular torso, and the black slacks he wore scraped lightly against the cobblestones as he walked bare foot over to her. His black hair swung in front of his eyes, and his hands were shoved in his pockets.

She stood up, waiting as he approached. He stopped in front of her, about a foot away, and he was looking at her with his soft grey eyes. She smiled at him as he held out a strong hand.

_Shall we dance?_ His voice came from out of the corners of the garden, echoing softly through the luscious landscape. Wrench smiled, and took his hand with a low bow. He whirled her into a slow dance with music floating in from nowhere. Wrench didn't know how Zane, of all people, knew how to waltz like he did.

After a few minutes of effortless dancing, Zane suddenly leaned down....and kissed her softly on the lips. And as the kiss deepened, Zane's words rang in her head before she woke up suddenly.

_I love you._

**A/N:Yeah, rite now it's really boring. But more good stuff will come later. I promise!! :-)**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**


	26. Chapter 26

~Damon felt so weird when he left the hotel where his fragile sister was weeping in the arms of a mere human who seemed to care about her a great deal. He had given her his favorite leather jacket, and he told her to keep it, not caring if she gave it back or not.

_Not like I can find another one else where,_ he thought, walking out in the rain. The sky was a swirling pool of black clouds, blocking out every spark of the moon's light. Damon had no time to complain about the rain messing his cap of black hair or the rain soaking his clothes. His boots were tough enough to not suck in any stray water from the ground, but he still shuddered when the rain kept crashing onto his now bare biceps.

Ever since coming to Fell's Church, he knew instantly that one of his family members were lurking around. But he never knew that his sister was alive and as old as he and Stefan were. Damon had the first impression that Stefan had followed him just to be faint hearted and calm and pathetic to embrace the hunter inside him. Stefan was the kind of guy that thought that humanity was inside every immortal being, vampires and otherwise, but he never truly saw the beast that Damon had taken and enjoyed in his five hundred years of immortality. Stefan tried to blend in with the human world, acting like a goodie little teenager, and Damon simply hid himself in the shadows, killing and ttaking as much human blood as he possibly could take.

His sister, however, was a different story. She had a personality that was very different from Damon's and Stefan's. Wild and reckless enough to do anything she wanted; yet she was soft and wiser than her years. Damon knew her pain was masking her true feelings. And Damon never knew that she looked so irresistible, even to him, of all people. Her face was always sad and angry whenever he saw her. But her features were slightly similar to Stefan's and Damon's, like Damon's fine hair and Stefan's wild cheekbones. But everything else was all hers, like her mother was different from Damon's. Her wild, curly black hair reflected the blue highlights in her raven's feathers, and her lips were as thick as Elena's were, only paler. Damon was also fascinated how her bosoms were full and big, and her curves stretching down her body were so...so...succulent for other vampires. It was impossible to look that curvy without plastic surgery. He knew that though she thought of no boys ever wanting her, he guessed she had to be stared at a lot because of her body and gorgeous face.

Damon was constantly baffled by the color of her eyes. It made him think of melted dark chocolate, thick and delicious, and to add to the beauty of them, dark, little rubies circled her irises.

This bothered Damon for a while. Damon thought of himself the exotic one, with his endless black eyes and black hair and a sexy body ladies can never resist. Centuries and centuries of believing in his dark wildness made Damon come to the conclusion that he was the best looking of the entire family.

Boy, he was now proved wrong just by looking at his female sibling.

Damon walked slowly through the rain, each step taking him through the streets without anyone seeing him, though he strode with a casual pace, thinking. What did he feel about his sister anyway? She had accused them for being so selfish and full of it that her brothers never noticed her, but Damon was taking such a strange interest about her way of life as a vampire that he couldn't just leave her alone. Damon had never felt like this before. Emotions was something like a distant feeling in his gut to him. He barely felt anything else but sarcastic and angry; kindness and serenity was nothing to him at all. He wondered how his sister felt with all her emotions right in front of her, ready for her to show and express whenever she felt like it?

He also noticed that he never cared for anyone else in his entire lifetime but him, but now he was starting to think he had sympathetic feelings for his neglected sister.

_Dammit!_ he thought, leaning up against an old oak tree, rubbing his temples. _Why does my own sister give me headaches? I guess I spend too much time probing her thoughts._

Damon's mind still pondered for a long time until he heard Stefan's voice in his head.

_What do you want, boy? _he snarled, still rubbing his head, only harder due to Stefan's girlie voice in his head.

_Where are you? You said you were going to protect Vicki, but Meredith says you're nowhere in sight. Are you going to help or are you going to let me do all the work?_Stefan's mental voice was impatient and demanding. Nothing like his original self. How odd.

Damon smirked to himself. _Am I not allowed to visit my sweet sister and help her in her hour of depression?_

His head was empty for a little while. Damon knew his brother was confused about Damon visiting his sister. It was abnormal for Damon. _Not anymore,_ Damon thought to himself.

_You...went to see Tanya? Why?_ Trust Stefan to push things like that.

_For certain reasons that I don't think you would understand. So don't even think about pushing me that direction anymore. Got it, boy?_

But, even as he kept thinking about his feelings towards Tanya Mai, he rolled his eyes and flew in the direction of Stefan's location in the form of a fat crow, praying that she liked the gift he sent to her.

* * *

~Wrench woke up with a killer headache that rang in her ears and throbbed her head. She groaned, stirring underneath the warm, cotton sheets.

"Are you going to wake up anytime soon?" Zane's rough voice was quiet and warming. But it didn't really help her head. That strange dream she had last night really stirred her up, and her lips especially tingled when she felt his warm lips kiss her. She shuddered at the thought of the dream, and sat up slowly to keep her headache from becoming something to worry about most of the day. A headache to worry for. Not on her agenda.

"C'mon, Wrench. We have to go do some stuff today. Like go getting the stuff from the shop," he whispered to her. Wrench ran a hand through her curls.

"I don't know. I don't feel very good. Feels like my head's going to explode," she croaked. Her throat was dry like cotton. Zane realized this, and walked to the bathroom sink, pouring a paper cup full of tap water from the sink. He brought it back to her on the bed. After gulping it down, she gave back the cup.

"Um...I think you should stay here for today. You don't look so good," Zane added, putting a warm hand to her forehead. "No sign of fever." They both chuckled.

"I think you and I both know the reason why I am so tired looking," she said, smiling a little bit. Zane lifted her hand and stroked her pale skin with his thumb. Zane didn't look convinced.

"Why don't just stay here and rest a while, okay?" he said gently, looking at her. Wrench gazed at his rubbing thumb. She noticed how his veins showed beneath his hand, blue and long. And to feel his warm blood pumping through the veins...

She tenderly pulled her hand away. "I don't know. Maybe I should go out or something..." She motioned to stand up and grab her clothes, but Zane pushed her back on the bed.

"I don't think so, Miss Salvatore. You," he said, poking her nose. She giggled. "stay here. Got it?" She nodded.

"Good." He kissed her forehead in the family way. She blushed. She missed waking up like this during vacations at a beach resort or a lodge next to the mountains when Dan would reward the shop for doing such an awesome job with the customers and vehicles.

There was a slight knock at the door. Zane and Wrench exchanged glances, then Zane stood up to answer it. Zane was whispering to someone quietly, and soon he returned with a small paper covered item.

"This came for you," he declared, handing it to her. Wrench gingerly took the gift. The paper was black, with a deep red ribbon. Her name was scrawled in dark ink on a card. She tore it open, and read:

_Something to share with your inner thoughts. Hope you don't mind. _

_~D.S._

That caught her completely off guard. Instead of sitting there, wondering why on Earth Damon would give her something, she unwrapped the gift, throwing the scraps in Zane's face for fun He wrapped the red ribbon around hsi head like a total goof ball. He looked up when Wrench gasped.

It was a diary, brand new. The cover was black velvet, a small lock and key attached to the side. A blood red felt pen with an onyx stone hanging from a thick string that dangled from the end of the pen was stuck between the diary and the lock, and on the cover was a picture of a wicked looking dagger hidden in the velvet professionally. She flipped it over. On the far right corner was iron lettering in-you guessed it-blood red, in her initials, _T.M.S._

Zane, curious about her new gift, whistled. "Wow. That's really cool. And, kinda rare, if you ask me," he said, standing up from his bed. He headed towards the shower, red ribbon trailing behind him.

"Are you going to give me back my ribbon? And what do you mean it's rare?" she added. Zane stopped, tossed the ribbon to the floor, and turned on the bathroom light.

"Well, you can't find diaries like that in a cheap shop, like Target. Stuff like that come from outta the country, like Italy or something." Wrench giggled when he said Italy. Then gazed thoughtfully at the diary. She had never kept a diary before, but she was actually wanting to go out and get a simple one, like the color of plain gray or white snowflakes on a blue background. But she hadn't expected a black and red one. Black and red were her all time favorite colors, and that never changed. She wondered how Damon knew that.

Wrench yanked off the key from the side of the lock, unlatched the lock, then pulled open the cover. Damon had somehow written:_ Property of Tanya Mai J. Salvatore_, next to the name line, then locked it before sending it. Wrench frowned, then closed it again, locking it. She laid the little book and pen in her bedside drawer, and she gave a long look at the key, and wondered where she could keep it without people like Tanner or even Zane form reading it. then she got it.

She had found a simple gold chain the other day, laying randomly on the ground, and she had retrieved it, cleaned it off, then kept it for no reason. Well, now she had a reason. Wrench dug through the pocket of her jeans, fishing out the chain, and slipped it through the hole on the little key. She fastened it around her neck tightly, and tucked the little piece of important metal between her breasts. Wrench felt a little bit better to have something to do and talk about in a book rather than a person. She wondered why she hadn't thought of one before?

And that's when she heard the loud whispers outside the door to the suite. One of the voices caught her attention immediately, and she couldn't believe waht she was hearing.

Wrench froze in her place, trying to not gasp out loud.

**A/N:Thanx for all the reviews ppl!! Keep them coming. And tell me what you think of Damon's actions and feelings towards his sister?? :-D**


	27. Chapter 27

~Wrench was as still and unmoving as a marble statue, her vampire ears catching every word the two people outside her hotel suite were whispering. Her mouth was agape, eyes huge and wide. The only other noise she heard was the shower running. But she focused mainly on the conversation going on outside.

"...and so it's your fault I had to fire her, not mine." It was Dan. He sounded uptight and down right angry, and the loudness although he whispered made Wrench flinch visibly.

"Look, old man, I get punished for your stupid mistakes, not you. Shinichi and his sister Misayo will kill me if they found out I was working with someone else," another too familiar voice said.

_Holy shit_, Wrench thought. That's Tanner. And he said Shinichi again. Who was Shinichi anyway? The shower kept running, and she listened harder.

Dan gruffed. "I have kept your little secret for years, Tanner. But Wrench is stronger than she feels and looks to everyone. There's something about her that draws other vampires to her," he said quietly. "So how can you compete with her?"

Wrench heard a cry of anger, and heard a momentary yelp. She also heard bones crunch.

"Listen, you sick bastard, I keep you alive, and I give you so much for me. But if that twisted little...little..._bitch_ gets in my way at all, you die first. Got it?" Tanner threatened.

Wrench, as silently as her vampire feet would allow, got up from the bed and crept to the door. She pressed an ear to the wood, hearing two strong heartbeats and the rough breathing of Dan. Tanner was so quiet she thought he had disappeared, but his heart beat was there, and it thumped strangely. Not too fast like a human, but not so slow that it pumped every eight seconds. And the last time she got close to him, when she was strangling him, he emitted so much Power it was impossible for him to be a druid like Bonnie or anything else close to a creature containing Power.

The last word she expected to describe him rang in her ears like an echo in a cave.

_Vampire._

Tanner Hawkins was a vampire.

Wrench covered her mouth and gasped quietly. Tanner was a vampire. But for how long? Was he old? Did Katherine change him? Has been feeding on the boys?

Did he kill Conner O'Donnell and Johnny Blitz?

The thought made Wrench's cogs in her head begin to turn, and she rushed around the room, throwing on random clothes and Damon's leather jacket he gave her last night when she was crying. It was big but warm, and it smelled like Damon. Wrench liked the smell of Damon; musky like a human but with the sweet predatory scent of the hunter. She smiled at the fragrance of her older brother.

Just as she was about to walk out, Zane, looking sexy with damp hair and no shirt, showing his God-chiseled chest, stopped her.

"Um...Wrench? Where are you going? I thought I told you to go back to sleep and rest," he scolded her. She flashed him a smile.

"Okay, I owe you one day of vacation. but I really need to do someth...Ow!" She turned, and ran right into Tanner's torso, face first, and it kinda hurt. She grimaced at his scent-it smelled of sickly sweet human blood-and backed away.

"Going somewhere, Salvatore?" he purred, taking a step toward her. She backed up into Zane, who gave Tanner a shove in the chest, eyes burning with fire.

"Back off, Hawkins. Don't mess with her today. Go the fuck away," he warned.

Wrench had no exit. She had to get to her brothers; it was an absolute emergency. But Tanner and Zane's fighting was blocking the open door, and even if she ran Zane was bound to see her. And she didn't have the time to explain to him that she was a vampire if he saw her.

She peeked at the window, mind going through the possibility of jumping out the window and racing to her car before anyone could catch her. But what would Zane say when he found the window wide open with Wrench nowhere in sight?

Wishing she should listen to her instincts more, she threw open the window while both the boys' backs were turned, and flung herself out, landing neatly like a cat five stories below. Thankfully, no one was below her window, or they would've screamed and ran around the parking lot in complete panic, because she was stupid enough to jump before checking it was safe first. But she wanted to waste no more time. Wrench had her keys in her hand as soon as she reached her car, and revved the engine so hard it was a good chance she broke it in some places.

With little Power she possessed, she stretched out her Power as far as she could, feeling around the town for two specific minds. She found both of them; Stefan was at the morgue, and Damon was outside Vicki Bennett's house.

_I need both of you to go to Dan's Auto N Repair Shop. I need to tell you guys something. Stay high above the ground, and go to the roof near my room's window._ She broke off contact to focus her driving.

Suddenly, though, the wet pavements became clouded with fog that came from nowhere, and she blinked. Where did the fog come from? A strange crunching noise sounded from the side of her Hummer, and the window shattered into tiny fragments, a few slicing into her face, causing her hands to reflexively turn the wheel sharply. The car's tires screeched in protest, and she stomped on the break. The car stopped instantly. Wrench had the impression to swivel her head around and look at the deserted street beyond the stop sign there, blood running in front of her eyes.

A dark figure stood in the middle of the road, a slight slouch in his stance, but the fogginess blocked out the figure's facial features.

_Did you really think you can just run away form me and think you can tell your pathetic brothers that I'm a vampire?_ Tanner's dark, sinister voice filled her head. She cringed at his voice.

_I don't know what you want form me, but you'll never get it. You can go back to where you came from, demon._ She used every whim in her Power to threaten him as hard as she could because she needed time to untangle herself from the seat belt so she could run instead of drive. She knew she was going to lose her best possession to Tanner, but her life seemed more important, no matter how worthless it was.

Tanner's sinister laugh rang in her ears. _Go back to Hell? I don't want to go alone, though. Would you like to join me?_That was a threat to kill her. Wrench would love nothing more than to let Tanner spill her blood across the pavement., ending her life, but she _had_ to tell Damon and Stefan that Tanner was a...

Wrench moved to the back seat behind her when Tanner's huge body slammed into the side of the car, his hand grappling for her neck. His fingers found her hair and yanked, eliciting an ear splitting scream from her. Her own fingers were reaching for the window switch to roll down her car window on the other side of the vehicle, but Tanner's restraining hand kept her form reaching her goal, so she used the only weapon she didn't forget instead of her damn dagger she left at the hotel. Her teeth.

Wrench let her teeth lengthen and sharpen as she fought for Tanner's fingers, scrabbling to pry them free of her curls. Tanner snarled and tightened his grip, pulling and yanking until her scalp was bloody and hairs began to come loose.

But, she won the battle, and when his fingers slipped from her hair, she tossed her head and bit his hand. Tanner recoiled, growling, and Wrench flew out the window as a raven right before Tanner's huge form slammed into the car, making it roll down the hill the road was perched on.

_There goes my promotion prize,_she thought bitterly to herself. She soared through the trees, her scalp burning from the yanks Tanner's hand inflicted. Wrench kept going until she was a fair enough distance away to run the rest of the journey to the shop where her brothers were probably waiting.

As soon as she got there, she ran up to the closest wall of the building and gripped the crack in the brick closest to her. She climbed up effortlessly, easily finding ridges in the walls and small holes to grip for with her hands and feet.

Her hand touched the roof, but her palm slipped and she stumbled backwards...

...then Damon's hand flashed out to catch her. His amused smile widened when he saw her simply dangling from his grip.

"Having fun_, sorella_?" he mused, grinning wider. She smirked a him, then hauled her body up. Stefan grabbed her other arm and steadied her on her feet.

"So, what kind of information could you possibly have that might help us all?" Damon started, crossing his arms over his broad chest. His eyebrows raised as he drank in her wearing his leather jacket. Stefan just looked confused and looked back and forth between the two other immortals.

Wrench wrung her wrists. "I know this is going to sound really weird," she started. "But...Tanner Hawkins is a vampire." Wrench told them how she had heard the conversation at the hotel, finishing with what she experienced on the road with her car being ruined.

"So...if he's a vampire," Stefan said. "How could he hide that from you for a long time?"

Wrench shrugged. "I don't know. If he is able to hide form me for a long time, then he's got to be pretty powerful. Like I said before, when I was strangling him at the shop before I left with you guys for Vicki's house, I felt Power just flowing out of him. He seems, and looks, very powerful. What do you guys think?" Her brothers thought for a long time about that, looking at each other thoughtfully. Wrench waited, though she was slightly impatient...

"It makes sense," Damon finally said. "But why is he here anyway? Other than the blood soaked grounds of the cemetery?"

"I have no clue. Maybe he's here for a good reason, but doesn't want to be open about it. Yet." Wrench was scratching her chin. "I think should get back, guys. I owe Zane something that I need to pay him back with. So...later." Stefan had bowed his head in respect and to thank her for the information, but Damon grabbed her arm before she bounced off the roof.

"Please tell me you got a gift in the mail today," he simply stated.

Wrench sighed and nodded. "Yes. It was a diary." She frowned. "Why?"

Damon's face was masked with no emotion, but his eyes said everything. Wrench knew from a few months of experience, that when Damon was in a mood that only shown in his eyes that he was thinking very hard about something. His black eyes searched her own, looking straight through her.

"Because I love you, and I want you to have somebody to talk to. I don't have a diary, but Elena used to tell me that her diary was like a friend to her. Try it out sometime. For me." Then Damon leaned over to kiss her forehead lightly. Wrench had the courage to kiss his cheek when he leaned back, and with a small twitch of her lips and a quick, "Thank you." she flew back to the hotel as a raven.


	28. Chapter 28

~Wrench slept uneasily that night, tossing and turning around under the sheets. Knowing that Tanner was a vampire was really disturbing her head, and she tried with all the Power she had to get rid of his face in her dreams. Tanner clouded her dreams with nightmares and visions of death and her own past. Tanner had envisioned Zane and her brother's own deaths, and he even relived her saddest moment when Katherine had changed Wrench into the creature she was currently.

The nightmares came and went for a long time, and the third time she had awaken from a terrbile dream, she gave up trying to fall back to sleep without any fear that the dreams will come back. She sighed deeply, and dug out her diary from the duffle bag underneath her bed. Zane had kept his word, and he and the other boys went back to the shop to collect clothes and items needed for the stay at the hotel.

Wrench didn't really know how to write in a diary. She had never owned one before, and so she sat there with dim lighting, thinking about how to start writing, or even what to say. This was her first entry in the new diary, and she was very unsure about So she started the old fashioned way.

_Dear Diary,_

_~I keep having these strange dreams about death and my own living memories. I understand that Tanner is a vampire, like I am, but is he that strong enough, as strong as Damon, strong enough to sneak into another vampire's head and take over their memories and dreams? Why didn't I see him as a vampire before I found out today? How come I never saw this coming? I know I'm weaker than Stefan, but I have some Power that's enough to sense when another immortal is close by. How can Tanner cloak himself so well? It's all too confusing. It's leaving my brain so jumbled, and it's hard to fit the pieces of the puzzle together to make any sense. I can't think straight now. Tanner has the looks and feel of a human, but when I hear his heartbeat or feel waves of Power rolling off him, it reeks of vampire traits all around him. But there's something else about him that is very different from a normal vampire. He seems..._older_ than he looks. He looks older than me, even. Me and my brothers put together._

_Speaking of which...my brother Damon is acting so strange. For the past few days since he's come back to Fell's Church, he's been hanging around me a lot and being a sweet brother. But I don't understand. This isn't his normal behavior. Usually he's off killing someone and feeding on innocent girls, amusement in his black eyes, and he's always trying to pick on Stefan. But lately...he's been a good guy. He bought me this rare diary, and he even kissed my forehead yesterday. He's certainly acting different, and in a way I never knew he could act. When he looks at me, and I stare back, the amusement is hardly there, and he looks at me with something that looks like...like...sympathy. Can it be possible that he loves me as a person and sister rather than a shadow? I just can't be sure anymore. The Tanner thing and Damon's weird behavior is making me so confused; the pieces just don't fit and make sense at the same time. The puzzle pieces go together, but they make up the strangest theories, like Tanner is an Old One, one of the very first vampires that the world had ever seen. But he doesn't look old enough to fit the part._

_I guess I better try and fall asleep. Tanner may be strong, but he doesn't scare me into not sleeping. So...goodnight my friend._

_~Tanya Mai Salvatore, 6/12/09_

Wrench closed the little book and locked it with the key around her neck. She placed the book and pen in the small pocket in the duffle bag. She pulled the covers up to her chin, and knocked herself into sleep before Tanner could beat her to it.

* * *

~Outside, it was raining very hard, causing Damon's hair to flatten against his head. A few pieces plastered against his eyes, and he impatiently pushed them away, leaning harder into the tree that he perched in. Watching a hallucinating girl was more annoying and stupid than he realized, sitting in a tree, almost falling asleep casually. Cautiously watching a girl was so boring. He wondered what his sister was doing right now. _Probably sleeping_, he thought to himself. She flashed his smile at the thought of her.

Damon sighed deeply and leaned up closer to the bark of the tree. The fine scent of the pine tree filled his nostrils, clouding his brain into a sensational visual mist of forest evergreen, something he secretly liked, though he would never admit it to anyone. Except maybe his sister...

Damon groaned and smacked his forehead. Why was he acting so different towards Tanya Mai? She hated him, and he usually ignored people like her. But she was something different, something beautiful and special and wonderful and wise and...

Something suddenly electrocuted his head with a jolt of Power, and with a slight yelp, he fell to the ground, landing on all fours before his face was squished into the muddy earth, shock vibrating through his body. Now _that_ was something that was confusing. Damon felt a gentle stroke of Power from above him, and Damon looked up.

A tall man stood there in a yellow rain jacket, his frame slender even for a man of about thirty or forty. His hair was white-blond, tousled and messy, and his only clothes were a plain white T-shirt and dirty jeans, covered in mud and dark spots of blood. Even his ugly looking hiking boots were stained with blood. The man's eyes were blue, so blue they were electrified blue. The man that stalked Vicki all the time; he fit her description perfectly.

"So," the man purred, chuckling. "The dominant Damon Salvatore gets knocked out of tree. I expected more from you." He held out an offering hand.

"Can you blame me?" Damon replied, standing up on his own. He brushed off leaves and bits of debris from his jeans. "You scared the hell out of me, and I don't really pay attention while thinking."

The cocked his head to one side. "And would I be too pushy to ask what you were thinking about?" he asked casually, slinging an arm around Damon as though they had been friends since they were. Damon grimaced and shrugged off the man's casual gesture.

"Does that concern you in any way?" Damon demanded, climbing back up his tree. The man followed him with out even putting his foot in the tree. He was just..._there_ when Damon resumed his perch on the tree branch.

"Because I am curious about your ways, Damon Salvatore. And about your interesting family," he answered. The man lounged on the branch next to Damon's.

Damon laughed with no humor. "You can go bother my brother if you want, but leave me alone."

"I wasn't talking about your brother."

Damon's black head whipped around, and stared at the new stranger. He growled, flashing pointed teeth.

"If you put one finger on my sister, I will personally rip out your..." He intended to finish, but the man's loud laugh stopped him.

"I'm not the one who you should worry about killing your sister, Damon. I don't _want _to kill her. Not yet." The man sighed, then blinked. "Oh, pardon my rudeness. I am Klaus, an Old One." He held out a bony hand. Damon looked at that hand, bit it, then turned back to watching Vicki's window. Klaus was startled at Damon's snap at his hand.

"And," Klaus added, not worried about his bleeding hand. "I'm not the one who wants to kill her anyway. I'm leaving that to my old friend who knows so much more about her beautifully ice cold soul than I do." Klaus looked at Damon and smiled. Damon rolled his eyes, then vaulted from the tree. Klaus was right behind him.

"I don't believe you know Tanner Hawkins?" Klaus stated simply. Damon stopped and stared. His sister said something about Tanner. Tanya Mai had said that he was a vampire. Could Tanner be an Old One like Klaus?

"Yes, though vaguely," Damon replied, sounding bored. But somewhere inside him he was afraid his sister was going to get hurt somehow.

Klaus grinned. "Then go ask him." Klaus placed a hand on Damon's shoulder. "Since I admire your skills, Salvatore, I suggest we simply leave each other alone, ignore one another as hunters. Agreed?" Klaus held out his hand again. Damon just glared at him.

"Then....think fast!" Klaus disappeared into Vicki's house somehow, and soon there was nothing but screams of pain and the spray of blood and glass at the window. Damon could only watch with horror.

* * *

~It had ceased from raining, and large rain puddles dotted the sidewalk next to the hotel foyer. The fireplace was burning brightly in the lounge, and conventional breakfast was being served. The shops' boys crowded the food counters like vultures, but they only grabbed a little bit to let other people eat peacefully. Donuts, cereal, bagels and cream cheese, coffee, juice and fruit was piled high onto plates, and Zach had brought another three huge boxes of Dunkin Donuts for the boys' sweet tooth craving.

Wrench had slept only two peaceful hours last night, and she woke up so late that as soon as she came downstairs, half the boys had already eaten. Zane did a double take at her hair and random choice for clothes:white T-shirt, black jeans, biker boots and Damon's leather jacket.

"Uh..." Zane began, but she held up a hand.

"Don't ask. No sleep last night, so I woke up late." She speculated the donuts. She couldn't eat human food, but from time to time she liked to eat just to make sure the boys didn't worry about her barely eating habits. "Are those chocolate twists?"

Zane smiled. "Yup; help yourself." He grabbed two vanilla custard-filed donuts topped with chocolate glaze. "So what kept you from sleeping last night?" he asked, pouring his second cup of coffee.

Wrench sat down at a deserted table, nibbling on her donut. "I don't know," she lied. "I guess I have too much on my mind right now." She let her gaze wonder around the room, watching the boys walk around and talk and eat.

Zane added four small packs of sugar to his black coffee, munching on a donut. "Like what?" he prompted around a mouthful of sugary dough.

Wrench shrugged. "Just stuff." And that's when her roaming gaze stopped and stared at the person behind Zane.

Damon. And he didn't look very good.

"Damon?" she said, and Zane's head looked up behind him. He jumped, almost losing his hot coffee.

"Dammit," he cursed, wiping his shirt with a napkin.

"Damon, what's wrong?" Wrench asked, standing up. She touched his cheeks with her small palms. Damon's face was a mask of emotion she never knew he could possess. He was angry, so angry, but he was also very shocked and concerned.

"Tanya Mai, I..." he started, but somehow he couldn't finish. He wrung his wrists in concern.

"Um...I don't mean to interrupt," Zane broke in, jumping up from his chair. "But how the hell do you know this guy?"

**A/N:Hey readers!! So do you guys think Tanner is an Old One??? Or is Klaus lying??? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....and it will get interesting very soon. Closer than most of you think. Just be patient plz!! Thanx!!**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver :-D**


	29. Chapter 29

~Wrench felt like slapping her forehead. She had once told Zane that her brothers were deceased, died in a tragic car accident years before she started working at the shop. And she didn't know what Damon's reaction would be if she tried to lie to Zane. But, clearly, Zane was standing there, waiting for an answer, arms folded across his chest.

"Um...Zane, can we talk about this later? I have to go do something important..." she apologized, and her and Damon rushed up to her hotel suite, leaving Zane standing there all hurt and confused.

Damon put his hands on her shoulders. "Tanner is an Old One," Damon explained. "And Tanner is planning on killing a lot of people soon, starting with me and Stefan. I want you to try and stay away form him, for me, please." Damon sat on the bed and told her of his encounter with Klaus, and about how Klaus mentioned Tanner being an Old One. Wrench sat through all of it, listening intently.

"But why is Tanner wanting to kill me? Yeah, I can beat his ass at mechanics, but can he really be that mad enough to kill me?" she asked.

Damon shrugged. "I don't know. But I beg you to keep yourself safe from him, please." Wrench never knew that Damon could care about another being except himself. This was so unlike him.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash of glass on the floor above them, and a male scream. Wrench's muscles tightened in alarm, praying that the male scream wasn't one of the boys', or Zane's either. The thought of Zane's blood streaked, dead face like that of Conner's and Johnny's made Wrench snarl, "No! Not him, too!" and raced out the door, Damon right on her heels. People were running towards the noise themselves, crowding the narrow hallway. Wrench and Damon shoved and pushed people into the walls, and a few of the people snapped back insults and comments not meant for the little kids and elderly people to hear.

Wrench stopped at a stairway as more visitors took up every inch of the stairs. She cursed under her breath, and resumed her pushing and shoving of the crowd. Damon was always right behind her, never losing sight of her.

Wrench finally ran at a dead sprint, a complete blur to the mortals, and she halted at a door on the west side of the building. None of the humans had reached the last hallway yet, too slow for her running and Damon's.

The door was hanging open, and the stench of blood was all over the walls. Wrench's heart leaped; if there was another dead boy in the room, then she wasn't going in there this time. but a rapid heartbeat made her sidetrack and peek behind the door.

Tanner was bent over Dan's limp body, the sucking sounds loud and bubbly. Dan was barely breathing; it came out in small wisps of air. Tanner's brown hair was covered in blood, his own blood, and his hands were a red mess.

"Shit!" Wrench yelled, attacking Tanner with her teeth. Damon's screech of protest was a distant noise. Tanner sprang out of the way of her flying jaws, and growled in frustration. The next few moments were like eternity for the two grappling immortals, and Damon tried multiple times to get a snap at Tanner himself, and in the end, Wrench and Damon won. Tanner had thrown Damon into the bathroom, the mirror's shards all over the linoleum, and Tanner was drinking from Wrench's stunned body, her leg broken and limp.

_You thought you were the only vampire in the shop,_ his mental voice was saying._ But you're wrong. I will drink you dry, you old hag from hell. Join Katherine wherever she is._

_Not if I stop you first._ Damon's voice rang like thunder in Tanner's head, and Tanner hissed at Damon, forgetting whom his prey was. Wrench threw her fist into Tanner's jaw, and within the blink of an eye, Tanner was gone, and Damon was running with Wrench in his arms, wrapped in Damon's leather jacket.

They ended up in the barn at the boarding house, and Damon placed Wrench on the soft pile of hay. Wrench moaned in pain. But her agony was drowned in shock. Her puzzle pieces now made sense. Tanner was a vampire, but no way could he be an Old One. But the waves of Power evaporating from him...impossible. And she had to stop him from killing another person. She just prayed that Dan was okay and was in the hands of good people.

"He tried to kill Dan!" she was shouting, mostly to herself. She struggled against Damon's hold on her to keep her lying on the hay pile. "I have to kill him, the bastard!"

"Tanya Mai, stop. I know you want to kill him for what he did to Dan. But neither of us are in good enough condition to fight him in daylight. We need to wait until nightfall," Damon replied softly, fishing out a silken handkerchief and began to dab it gently on her neck wounds.

"But Damon...he was drinking Dan's blood and..." Her words were choked off as a horrifying visual of Dan's dead and bloody face, deceased and blank with an eternal scream played on his mouth. She shuddered at the thought.

"Ssh,_mi sorella_. I know how you feel. Now just relax." Damon instructed her to hold the handkerchief to her neck while he began to rub her sore, mangled leg. "Just relax."

"How can I relax?!" she yelled, flinging her arms around in anger. "Tanner Hawkins is a fucking vampire, and we're just sitting around and doing nothing but relax?! How can you even say that?!"

"Because neither of us can fight him off like this, even if we ganged up on him. We need to wait until later, alright?" Damon's voice was strangely soothing and gentle, as soft as his massaging fingers.

Wrench crossed her arms stubbornly and pouted. "Fine. But I think we're wasting time trying to get out there and kick him straight in the..."

"Watch the mouth, _sorella._ _Ora rilassare prima che la faccio rilassa._" God, she hated it when Damon talked to her in their native tongue. It was a very long time when Wrench finally spoke.

"Why are you treating me like this, Damon? You never had before, you or Stefan."

Damon looked up from his massaging, looking slightly uncomfortable. His pit-less black eyes bore into hers, once again searching her empty, icy soul for the answer. But, finding nothing, he just glanced back to his rubbing fingers. His voice was soft, like a whisper.

"I told you in the crypt. I owe you for all the time I've wasted on myself and on other affairs that are not as important as you," he replied, beginning to twist her leg back into place.

"Then why don't I believe you?" Wrench answered, clashing her teeth together to keep from screaming at the pain.

"Believe it or not, _sorella._ But it's the truth." He heard the sweet pop as her knee cap slid back into place, her calf bone grinding against her ankle bone. Wrench squealed, hissing. Then sighed in relief when her bones were at least sore instead of painful. Fatigue washed over her quite fast, causing her eyelids to feel like heavy iron was weighing them down over her eyes.

Damon saw her eyes get heavy, and shifted his body so she was laying on his torso in a family way, her head on his shoulder. Wrench froze at the move, and squirmed as he stroked her hair.

"I don't know what the hell you're doing, but I don't think this fits your style of family cuddle," she commented, trying to get up. She moved to lay next to him instead of on him, but Damon kept her flushed against him.

"If this didn't fit my style, then I wouldn't have moved to this position then, wouldn't I?" he murmured in her hair. The air was tense and uncomfortable, as Wrench had no idea that snuggling like the siblings were fond of each other was quite nerve wrecking. Yet, there was something the way Damon's fingers through her curls made her wonder what their brother/sister relationship would have been if he hadn't treated her so badly. She said so.

"We probably would've been very fond of each other," he whispered. "Some people might say that because our personalities are completely different that we will never be so close, and yet, here we are." He flashed his one-second smile.

"Damon, you don't even know my middle name."

"What if I do know your middle name?"

"Then what is it?"

"Janine."

"Dammit."

"I told you. Now what else do I know about you? Hmmm...you like to take long walks in the woods by yourself and..."

Wrench looked at him. "How do you know that? I never told you about that."

Damon chuckled. "I'm Powerful enough to read your thoughts, _piccola sorella._ Don't underestimate me."

She glowered at him. "I never underestimate you. I just don't trust you."

"Wow. I feel so loved." Damon rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure you do." She laid there silent for a while, then said: "You treat me better than Stefan does. Even with that little blond bitch gone he still mourns over her. I wish he would just grow up."

Damon smiled. "I have to agree with you. Strangely, but it's true."

"How is it strange?" She sat up to look at him. He gazed back, and stared of at the hole in the roof of the barn. The hole was big enough to let him star-gaze while choosing his answer carefully.

"Because I never knew that I would ever see you again. Back in Florence, I had no interest but myself, and Katherine." Wrench growled at the name, but let him continue. "And after I knew that you had changed into a vampire, I started to feel weird since I changed as well. I felt more...distant from my previous life when I thought Katherine had died, that I started to realize the things around me. Like my mistreatment of you. So for the next few centuries I had tried to locate you, but I never was able to find you."

"That doesn't answer my question," Wrench muttered impatiently, rolling her eyes.

"I'm getting there," he said. "So while I was trying to find you, I was trying to think about how I would care for you when I saw you. I knew you would hate me, but I had to try and be nice to you. So I waited for years on end, until I first saw you when I came to Fell's Church."

Wrench nodded. "So you were thinking about how you would treat me when you finally foudn me, but you wouldn't know how I would act?" she asked, guessing his thoughts.

He nodded. "But I knew I had to try and be myself and be nice to you at the same time."

Wrench shook her head. "Considering how little I've seen you, I can't believe how much I've learned about you, Damon Salvatore."

Damon laughed softly. "I guess it runs in the family as well."


	30. Chapter 30

~Wrench was roused gently by her older brother Damon at around eight thirty in the evening. Damon had let his sister sleep peacefully in the barn behind the boarding house all day while he went out hunting his fill to go out and find Tanner and kill him. But Damon had taken a side trip, and asked some of the boys at the shop how Tanner acted around Wrench and the other boys. Each boy said that he hated Wrench down to her guts and acted quite strange. Tanner liked to go out a lot, like Wrench did, and he always came back sort of smug and satisfied, like a Cheshire cat. Damon immediately thought,_ The I'm-Filled-With-Blood-Face. Gives a vampire away at any time._ But he still wasn't sure, though the pattern fits with the drained blood from the dead bodies of Conner and Johnny when the coroner examined them. And no one could explain the fatigue and lack of blood from Dan's white-green face.

And when Damon came back to the barn, he watched his sister sleep for a while longer, letting her mind ease and relax before waking her softly. Damon had found his sister's sleeping quite fascinating. She looked as though she was happy her dreams had taken her somewhere free from pain and sorrow for once. She slept with a small smile played on her lips, and her hard-masked face softened a bit. Damon stroked her cheek feather-like with his fingers, brushing a curl from her face. That action of affection for his family had roused her, and her eyelashes fluttered a little.

"Good evening, _mi sorella._ Enjoy your nap?" he murmured. Wrench rubbed her eyes and blinked, sitting up. Bits of straw stuck to her hair and clothes, and Damon, chuckling, swiped them off with a pale hand.

"Slept fine, thank you. But where were you?" she asked, though the blood spot on his lower lip answered her question quite clearly. She wet her finger and scrubbed it off.

"Off doing my job," he replied, amused.

"Which would be...?"

"Don't ask." He pulled a straw piece from her bangs, tossed it away with a flick of his wrist. "I don't think you would want to know, anyway."

"Getting yourself another smitten girlfriend, Damon?" she sighed, and laughed when he growled at her. "Don't deny it, _fratello grande._ You know what you do and whom you do it to."

Damon's ice cold glare melted. He grinned slightly. "Be nice to me. Because I am about to be nice to you. And please remember that I had never done this before." And, so fast he was lightening, he had his bitten wrist in her mouth, forcing her to drink his blood. Wrench was just nothing but shock, sitting there frozen before Damon's human-tainted blood filled her mouth. The taste was irresistable, mostly because the human blood was so sweet, and because Damon was her brother and he wanted her to be nice to him, so he was going to get his way sooner or later. She sank her teeth into the bitten spot to get more mouthfuls of blood, and Damon flinched.

"You have sharp canines, do you know that? Those teeth can rip open a steel door; they're so pointed," he commented, running his fingers through her hair with his other hand.

"Mh-mmm," she muttered, not wanting to let go of his wrist.

Damon fidgeted under her sucking, searching his pocket for something. He produced her Sidekick cellular phone. "You left this, by the way, at the hotel. Figured you might wanted it back." Wrench nodded her agreement.

After two long more minutes of letting her take his blood, she let him go, licking her lips, panting. "I haven't fed like that since sixteen forty-nine when a thief was stealing my money," she said through gasps for breath. "Thanks, _fratello grande._"

"Don't thank me; I just know that you're too weak to fight someone as powerful as Tanner," he answered with a small clip to his words. But Wrench knew that he did appreciate her thank you. He just wasn't used to showing a lot of affection in one whole day. Oh, well. Might as well let him have his way for a time.

"Now that I feel a lot more powerful than I was feeling earlier," Wrench started, sitting up and stretching her strong limbs. The Power that Damon's blood contained now flowed through her like a break in a dam holding back water. It filled her every pore and center, making her mind strong and more flexible with new tricks with her new Power. She stood and tested her new strength, and her bones and limbs took another shape.

Damon whistled at the great black cat sitting next to him, gazing at him with chocolate eyes. "_La sorella molto impressionante, dolce._ But is that enough to fight him off for a time?"

_It'll have to do,_ she sent back to him. _I can't think of another way to attack him. Do you?_

"I'm afraid not," Damon said, rubbing his square chin. "So how are we going to assault him? Simply run up to him and rip his throat out? No. We need a simple but witty strategy, but what?"

His beautiful sister reformed her human shape and paced, pulling at a loose curl. "When you spoke with Klaus, did he say where or who Tanner was after?"

"He said that Tanner was after you, but he never said where he was going."

"Did this Klaus say how he was acquainted with Tanner?"

Damon pondered this for a moment. "Well...he said that Tanner and him were partners, so I gave a wild guess that Tanner is indeed an Old One. I guess he was. Anyway, I'm guessing that wherever Klaus goes, Tanner goes."

"'Do as I say, not as I do,'" Wrench quoted smoothly.

Damon grinned. "You're smarter than I imagined, _mi sorella."_

Wrench shook her head. "But there is something else about him that's off. But I can't put my fing..."

"Can you feel that?" Damon said suddenly, interrupting her sentence.

Indeed she could. The air was instantly heavy with Power, and thick puffs of fog blanketed the ground around their ankles. The strong Power was intense in her mind, and it radiated her brain through every vampiric cell in her body.

"Damn, that Power is strong," Wrench murmured. Damon flashed his fangs, as did Wrench.

_It's a shame that a sister and her brother have only a few meager moments before they are murdered by their own breed. Haven't you learned that you're beneath the humans, dear Tanya Mai? Me and your older brother are the predators and above the food chain, but you're so weak that even a squirrel can beat you in a fist fight._ That voice, the menacing, evil voice of Tanner vibrated through her body like a bell. Damon threw himself in front of her, arms out and protective around her, crouching.

"What a stupid reaction, Damon old buddy. Even you can't even protect that little bitch from me." Tanner was standing on the hay pile, hands on his hips. He wore blue jeans and white sneakers, and a black blazer covered a white T-shirt. His hair was disheveled and muddy, and his blue eyes were so piercing, like sapphire daggers spearing right into her body.

Damon was just as viscious. He snarled loudly, body quivering from anger, and his arms were like protective fences around Wrench. "Watch what you say in front of me, Hawkins," he snapped back. Even his voice was a warning.

Tanner laughed. It was croaked and mean, obviously not meant for a joke. "Right back at'cha, asshole. Now, leave me alone with _her_, will ya?" Tanner beckoned Wrench. Wrench growled weakly, and clung her arms around Damon's neck with an iron grip. Her brother's warmth was something she was going to miss if she was going to die, so she held on to him with dear life.

"Over my dead carcass," Damon threatened. He backed Wrench into the wall next to the barn door, growls rippling through his body.

"Gladly," Tanner replied, his fangs slicing into his lower lip.

Damon was coiled, ready to spring at him with the full force of his Power and body, but Wrench's arms restrained him. Wrench whimpered in his ear, and tears misted her eyes.

_Don't be afraid for me, little sister. You need to go help Stefan. He's fighting an awful war with Klaus, and you need to go help him. The humans are also fighting him, and you need to go save them._ Her older brother pressed his chin to her folded fingers, kissing them lightly in encouragement.

_But I don't want to leave you. I love you too much. And I'm scared for you and I both._ Tears were falling in streams down her cheeks. Though distant before, Wrench felt something tug at her heart at the thought of losing the one person who was actually loving her instead of Zane for once. She didn't want to be miserable anymore; Damon had been there for her.

_Go save yourself before he kills you. I don't want you to fight him. Let me do this, and I will bring you revenge for his sinful actions. I promise. Now wait, and when I give the word, go help Stefan. Alright?_

Wrench was sobbing quietly now. She pressed a peck to his neck, burying her face into his soft skin before opening her arms. Damon charged full on. As did Tanner.

The fight was now a full-on war, blood going everywhere and screams of pain echoed off the old wooden walls. Wrench crouched in the shadows, waiting and watching in horror. Tanner had transformed to a golden cheetah with brown spots and blue eyes while Damon's wolf form was dark as night with black eyes and rainbow highlights in the fur. The jungle cat and forest animal grappled and growled. Then came Damon's signal.

_Run! And don't look back! No arguments, either! Stefan's near the old Francher farm! About four miles northwest from here!_And Wrench took off running in the shape of a black leopardin the indicated direction.

When she ran off, a piece of her lonely heart was left behind at the battle, and tears fell down her cat face. She knew that her brother would be okay, but what about Tanner? Would Tanner die in Damon's hands? Or...or will Tanner get him first? she shuddered at the thought.

She knew the town like the back of her hand. She reached the old Francher farm were only a few remnants and the old house chimney now stood. And Damon was correct. the fight was looking awful.

Klaus was like a God in some ways, only if you ignored the striking blue eyes and white-blond hair. He and Stefan were fighting with white ash wood lances, and so far, Klaus had pushed Stefan to his knees, knocking him on his back. Klaus took Stefan's lance and threw it across the clearing.

"Time to die, little boy," Klaus purred. The supply of blood Damon had given her was strong and powerful, and her senses were enhanced fully.

Bonnie was watching with mute dread from a few feet away, and Caroline and Meredith were watching a-Tyler Smallwood?-werewolf with a tourniquet. Matt was uncosconious in the shrubbery near by.

_What have I missed?_ The voice was all too familiar. She spun around, and fell to her knees at Damon's bloody face.

"You won?" she gasped.


	31. Chapter 31

~Damon grinned his second-grin. "Actually, he got away. But I injured him enough so he can't fight for a while, like three lethal bites to the neck and a broken leg." Damon's amused face collapsed into one of anger and such fury that the muscles in his back tightened and knotted. Wrench noticed how Damon's neck was ripped open, and his wrist was twisted in such a way that she cringed at the sight.

"Damon, don't fight in this shape. Please; let me do this one thing for y..."

"No, Tanya Mai! Just wait here until everyone is down, then you can attack, please. Just hide and save yourself." He started to walk, but she grabbed his arm.

"Damon, stop trying to protect me! I know how to fight; I'm not five hundred years old for nothing! Just let me do something when it comes to fighting." She ripped off the leather jacket that always was in her reach, and drew her dagger. She let her fangs grow and sharpen, and crossed her arms stubbornly.

"You are so stubborn it's incredible," he sighed, running a crimson colored hand through his hair.

"I know," she said with a three second smile, then noticed the white ash wood lance laying on the ground next to her foot. She recognized that piece of wood as the same stake that Klaus had discarded earlier. She picked it up and gave it to Damon.

"Kill Klaus, and I'll kill Tanner." She squeezed his arm. "Go and safe Stefan. I will be right behind you. I promise." Damon's black eyes held something more than just anger and fury. He grabbed her cheeks in his hands, pressing forehead to forehead with her. She intertwined her fingers with his, and small droplets of tears watered her face. Damon pressed his lips to her head, resting them there for just a moment. She pecked his cheek before Damon said the last words most people would never have thought of him saying while he turned to the blond evil in the clearing.

"Get away from my brother." And threw the white lance with such a force that it landed in Klaus's back with a devastating force. Klaus screamed so loudly that the scream bounced off the surrounding trees of the clearing.

It was a cry of rage and pain. Wrench could only watch with absolute dread and horror as her older brother took lithe steps into the clearing.

* * *

~Damon had kissed his sister lightly and left her waiting in the grove of some trees where she will be making an appearance later. She had a terrible, heart wrenching look in her eyes that said, _Don't go. Please don't leave me._ Damon wasn't used to heart-felt good-byes, but he felt strangely broken when he stalked into the clearing to face Klaus to protect Stefan from the clutches of the Old One. But he had the feeling that Tanya Mai knew what she was doing. Besides, he needed to focus on his duty right now.

"Get away from my brother," he repeated as the Old One turned to him just as he was about to kill Stefan with a mighty blow to the chest with the white ash stake in his hand. Klaus whirled around to glare at Damon with a bloody face and back. His blue eyes widened in surprise at Damon's excellent throw. Klaus tried to scrabble his hands behind him to pull out the stake, but it was in too deep.

"You idiot!" Klaus screamed at Damon. "We don't have to fight! I told you at the house! We can ignore each other!"

"Get away from my brother," Damon said once again. His voice was so quiet that it was almost a hushed whisper. "Before I tear your heart out."

Klaus ignored his prey laying on the ground, got a grip on his stake on the ground, and charged Damon, but the flurry on wings made him look up as a black feather floated to the ground. Klaus realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere by just standing there looking stupid; he took off into the dark woods and disappeared completely.

Dead silence filled the clearing.

Damon did one more swoop and landed next to Bonnie, whom was leaning over Stefan's unconscious body. Bonnie spoke.

"Will giving him blood help?" But Damon wasn't listening. He had knelt next to Stefan, and touched his dark head. "Stefan?" he whispered. Damon knew that Stefan and Tanya Mai were in big trouble if he didn't get them out of there. Damon held Stefan's hand, and he gave Power to Stefan like he did to his sister when they were imprisoned in the crypt. He tried sending warnings to his sister who was still cloaked in the shadows of the oak trees somewhere off in the distance. But something was blocking him out her head...

"Klaus is coming back," Bonnie murmured.

"I know," he replied.

"Would blood help him?"

"Not much. A little, maybe."

"Anything that helps at all we've got to try."

"No."

Both of them looked at Stefan. Damon thought that Stefan was knocked out, but his green eyes were wide and alert, focused on Damon's face.

"I thought I got rid of you, bitch!" The voice was fresh and, though slightly croaked, was loud and clear like crystal. The next few seconds that went by were so fast that if Damon blinked, it would've been over with.

One second, the great black cat leaped from the trees, sprinting at enormous speeds in a huge circle around the small huddled group, and galloped at the direction of Tanner, head on. Tanner had torn off his jacket, and grabbed the cat by the scruff and tossed her away like a piece of garbage, and Tanner landed on the cat, teeth ripping away flesh. The next second, Tanner's mouth dribbled with blood and black hair, and Tanya Mai was gushing so much blood that Damon was scared that Tanner had just killed her.

Damon vaulted himself in a position where he was watching Stefan and protecting his sister, flashing deadly teeth. Tanner chuckled.

"Why don't you ever listen, Damon?" Tanner purred, licking his lips in satisfaction. He watched Stefan try and sit up, then his face twisted in pain. Bonnie was so scared she was as white as a sheet, and she coward next to Stefan.

The loud battle cry came from the dark female on the ground, and Tanya Mai's dagger hit him right in the middle of his back, and Tanner spun around, hissing in pain. Tanya Mai threw her weight into him, and both immortals tumbled away.

"Get them out of here!" Tanya Mai yelled at Damon, stabbing Tanner in the gut, and used both hands to twist his neck all the way around to make him the "human owl." Tanner went still and limp. Tanya Mai tossed him into the woods in front of her, retrieved her weapon form the earthen floor, and joined Bonnie next to Stefan.

"Is he okay?" she asked out loud. Stefan shook his head.

"What are we going to do now?" Bonnie asked.

"How about I kill you first?!" Tanner's outraged voice said. His wide hand reached out and grabbed Tanya Mai's chin, hooking fingers around her jaw and yanked hard, pulling her to her feet. She bit his hand, canines sinking deep into his flesh. Damon had jumped in, trying to pull his sister free, but Tanner threw him away and raced away into the dark forest, his prey minutes away from death.

Damon was terrified and extremely worried, but he held back, just as Klaus came into the clearing with a lightening rod in his hand. He simply and quietly prayed that his sister would be okay and think of something fast to save herself.

* * *

~Wrench knew she had lost. She lost her will to live, she lost her most dearest friend Martyl, she had lost her dignity, and now she was going to lose her life. Her second life.

In some of her years, dying had been one of her number one options for how to end her suffering. Killing herself proved that she was weak with no self-esteem, but who would notice anyway? No one ever had the kindness to actually be her friend for once. Five hundred wasted years, and now her pain was going to end. Even in the hands of her nemesis, which seemed faster than she thought.

Thinking about dying and going to heaven was something that always thrilled her. She often imagined walking to the golden gates of heaven, where God's arms would embrace her warmly, offering kindness and happiness. But she always thought she would die from a wooden stake or drills to the temples. Dying in the hands of her nemesis was a distant possibility back then. Now it was so close of an option to her that it was a stroke of death. She welcomed it like a friend.

The downside to death, however, was how close she had gotten to Zane and the boys at the shop other than Tanner. Zane was like a brother she never knew, and even before Conner died he was so close to her. Jake and Blake were just angels to her; Zach had acted like a brother to her on some occasions. Even Dan was like a second father to her. He was enchanted by her abilities, and her wisdom he never knew a girl like her could have.

Zane was definitely something new these days. He looked at her as though he was in love with her sometimes, and he craved her presence more than any other of the boys. Wrench had noticed that he never shared any of his secrets or thoughts except for Conner, but since Conner was in God's arms, he turned to her and no one else. Zane had cried on her shoulder more times than she could count. Who would be there for him when he cried? Would he be different when she was gone? Would he be such a mess that he couldn't continue on with his life? She almost cried right there at the visual of leaving Zane. But God's arms were so close...

Tanner was now going to kill her. She had read his thoughts, and he planned to kill her slowly, and she'd have begged him to do it fast, but she let him do whatever he wanted. She didn't cry; didn't scream; didn't even flinch when he locked his arms around her neck, her own weapon positioned at her chest.

"This doesn't scare you, little bitch?" he purred in her ear. He chuckled. "I'd have expected you to scream for help."

"I'm not scared of you," she muttered, mostly to the stroke of death up her body slowly. It was the truth; death was too inviting. Not even the cold caress of Tanner's breath on her cheek made her cringe. She let her muscles relax and unknot. Death; the word rolled off the tongue. She loved it like she loved a lover.

Tanner had his fangs out, and he aimed them at her throat. _Death...remember death,_ she thought calmly. She tilted her head back, flicking her hair away from the big vein in her neck. Tanner grinned his crimson toothed smile, and leaned down farther, nuzzling her neck with mean affection. He bit her hard and fast, tearing the vein in her neck.

The last thing she saw was a ghostly smile lean over her and take her hand...


	32. Chapter 32

~The ghostly face was surprising. It was the old face of a Confederate soldier, one eye gone and one side of his face gory from a gruesome gunshot. He smiled at Wrench gently, like a gentleman greeting a lady properly. He stretched out a hand, reaching for her.

Wrench's eyes were heavy, her head light and floating. She remembered Honoria Fell's voice._ You will receive your life-long dream. You're end to your eternal suffering._ The words rang in Wrench's head like heaven's most beautiful golden bells.

_End to my eternal suffering,_ she thought weakly as Tanner's low sucking was draining her life away slowly._ Sounds right to me._Tanner's had that withheld her weapon lingered above her rapidly beating heart. He was impatiently waiting for the right moment to kill her with her own trusted friend, her only true friend. Her own dagger. The dagger had white ash wood hidden in the blade, but it was still wood, so it would kill her with a single blow.

Wrench was completely relaxed and calm now, breathing natural and slow, though her heart was thundering in her chest. Her muscles were soothed and loose, and she felt like flying.

The only few things wrong about her dreams was that somewhere in the background was a blood-curdling shriek that was so loud it could have woken the dead.

_"Elena! Elena! Elena!"_ It was Bonnie. So she wasn't far away from the others.

The other funny thing was that the Confederate soldier wasn't reaching for her. It was reaching for Tanner. His ghostly hand was gripping Tanner by the collar of his shirt and yanked him up, and she finally noticed that other ghost hands had grabbed Tanner and pulled him away. His grip on Wrench loosened, and she dropped to the muddy earth with a harsh bang. All her death dilemmas were now gone and distant. Her heavy eyelids now burst open as if she was a blind person whom was cured form her blindness. But her blood was all over the ground around her, and her head was spinning uncomfortably.

_No! No, please, Death! Don't leave me!_ her mind shouted. Death never answered back.

Three Union soldiers stayed behind as the others dragged a screaming Tanner off farther away from her. The three left overs all gently reached out and hauled her up onto her feet, steadying her on a low branch on a pine tree. She gave them all strange looks as they bowed low at her, saluting her formally, then poofed into nothing.

She was left alone.

Death had left her there, leaning painfully on a tree limb. Death no longer took over her head; no longer made her feel like flying. It left her there in pain and agony, her own blood almost completely gone from her body. Death had left her there with more wounds than she could handle.

She felt all alone; so alone she ran clumsily back to the edge of the clearing, and observed the new surroundings. A shocking new discovery made her wince visibly.

Elena, angel-like with invisible wind blowing back her golden waterfall of hair, was floating around the clearing, kissing everyone to heal the wounds they all had with the fight with Klaus. Elena healed everyone, even Matt and Caroline. Everyone but her. Elena never turned her way. Wrench was in full view of everyone, and Elena was fading away into the clouds, forgetting Wrench entirely.

The old wounds that had torn her to pieces back in Renassaince Italy opened again, and her bleeding heart was more empty than she thought. The angel-like Elena had healed everyone, but Wrench was still limping on one leg, and her neck was on fire. Vampires could heal easily, but it would take some time to heal her neck wound entirely. Though no cure would ever come with help for Wrench's mental heart break.

Wrench clutched her aching chest, trying to ease the agony ripping at her heart. The heart break was tearing at her every wound she had ever got. The wound she got when Katherine changed her; the wound when her brothers came back to town; the list just went on and on...

Her face was shocked and confused, numb tears spilling down her cheeks. She gasped, choking. The pain was bewildering; it made her choke and cry like she had never done so before.

Wrench watched her younger brother Stefan scream Elena's name, and she felt like laughing at his expression._ It's your own silly fault you fell in love with her in the first place._ She smiled at his discomfort.

Then, when her moment of triumph seemed to last, a flash of gold lightening crashed to the earth. It blinded her for just a second, then let her see the trembling naked girl on the earth next to the chimney, with long golden hair. It looked like Elena's hair.

Another jolt of pain spiked her chest, and she gasped for breath as Bonnie leaned over the Elena-look-a-like and touched her fingers. Wrench choked on more sobs, tears flowing like waterfalls down her face. She hoped for God's arms, or even Martyl's. Nothing but cold fingers picking at more wounds.

Meredith and Bonnie now knew it was Elena and not just a dream. Wrench gripped the tree closest to her, sliding to the rain soaked earth until her butt was wet with mud. Both of her hands were holding her chest with an iron grip, wishing and praying the pain would stop. She rocked herself, keening like a dying animal. _I want my nanny,_she thought like a little lost, scared child. Martyl's face was vague and blurred in her head. She cried and cried and cried.

Honoria Fell was wrong. Her eternal suffering was supposed to be what she felt, dead and free of agony. But she was alive and in pain.

Everyone was now rejoicing in the rain, dancing and laughing, and Wrench realized that Damon was nowhere to be seen. He had left her there. Another shot of pain, like bullets piercing her heart. She glimpsed Stefan whirling around with Elena on his arm, and Wrench was strangled again by her sobs.

The only thing to do now was limp home. Wrench blinked through tears, got up with pain in her sides, and started to slowly walk home. But...where was her home? She had no home; only a place to sleep. Her home was in her dreams, and her dreams were crushed and broken, as was her dream home.

Wrench's head was hurting from the dizziness and loss of blood, her neck was on fire, her sides hurt; her hands and face were bloody; and she was freezing cold. The rain was made for refreshing the night's tainted atmosphere, but the ice-cold feeling in her gut was pushing away the positive feeling of the rain, and it was double cold for her.

_Katherine...Brothers...Elena...Wounded...Lonely...Depressed._ Her thoughts were going through all her pin-pricks of pain. _I'm hurting...somebody...anyone...please help me. I need...help...anyone, please,_ she said quietly. There were no cars on the street; no people passing the sidewalks; she was all alone.

Something inside her told her every instinct that Tanner was not dead; he was too Powerful to outwitt a bunch of ghosts. He would have gotten away easily. He had her weapon, her only protection against him, and it was in his hands. If he came for her again, she would be dead so fast it would have been done with the blink of an eye.

And what about Damon? He was nowhere in the clearing. She couldn't even feel his Power. He had sworn to protect her, in blood, and he was gone like the wind. She had saved him a few times, and he saved her, but wasn't he supposed to be there when she was in pain? Not leave her walking the streets back to the hotel?

Wrench was crying all the way to the hotel. She had made it to the parking lot, and the pain had increased ten-fold. She wished she had her car, but Tanner had destroyed it.

All in all, she had lost her will to move on, lost her trust in her brother, her car, and her grip on humanity. She was lost and alone.

Wrench didn't have the courage to summon one of the boys, or go inside. So she found a suitable place underneath the shade of an oak tree, curled up on her side, and cried until she felt some pain leave her heart.

* * *

~It was hours since the fight with Klaus, and Wrench was still weeping when footsteps sounded a few yards ahead of her. Wrench's neck was still burning, and it was hurting more due to the pressure she put on it while she cried. The throbbing pain continued to spike every last positive feeling in her body. It speared every light in her body.

The footsteps were slightly louder. The footsteps were oddly familiar, even in the still pattering rain. Over the ringing in her ears, soft calls echoed off the wet pavements. They seemed to be calling her name. One was closer than she thought.

"Wrench?" That voice was distant, though close in reality. She couldn't hear, couldn't even see past her eyelashes. She turned off all her vampire senses. But the voice came again, and this time, it was louder. She couldn't tell who it was, though.

"Wrench? Oh my God, what happened? Wrench, can you hear me?" _An angel's voice_, she decided. Gentle hands shook her shoulder. She choked on another sob.

"Oh, Wrench. What happened?" _Why does this angel sound like Zach?_ she asked herself. The pain buzzed her mind fuzzy.

She took the risk and opened one eye. The colors were swirling, making her dizzy. Not seeing Zach's face very well, she clenched her eye shut again. "Zane! Dan! Jake, Blake! I found her!" Zach's angelic voice was calling on more angels to come take her away. Faint footsteps came closer in different rhythms than Zach's soft stride. Flashes of light suggested flashlights were being used.

"Oh God," The next voice was like Dan's, more bass-like and firm. The angel stroked hair away from her forehead. Wrench twitched her arm, and flinched. "Tanya? Sweetheart, open your eyes."

_But I don't know how to anymore,_ she wanted to say, but even her words were no longer there. She lost all knowledge on how to talk, move, breath, see, hear, or even think. Her mind was too jumbled to even be there.

"Tanya, c'mon, sweetheart. Open an eye. Please." Dan's voice was still angel-like. Still so nice and gentle...Someone touched her shoulder, and recoiled. "Lord, she's as cold as ice. And her neck is bleeding." Fingers felt her forehead next. She was so numb..._somebody help me rid of the pain._"Her face is burning up. She's got a fever. Zane, take her inside to your suite, turn up the heat on high, and wrap her in some blankets. Jake, Blake, you guys go get a medical emergency kit. Zach, go to the store and buy some chicken broth and warm Sprite. Get moving!" There was a soft russle of movement and the pounding of feet on the wet cement.

Warm, gentle hands scooped her up, and she screamed in pain. The cold fingers picked more at her wounds. She cried even harder. "Ssh, Tanya. It's okay; you're going to be okay. I'm here. I'm here." Zane's voice was more angelic and light that Dan's or even God's could ever create. She felt a little safe in his arms, but everything inside her was so broken, like a broken ceramic vase.

She was depressed; she was hurting; she was in trouble with Tanner; she was no better than she was days ago.

She was "All Alone With An Enemy."

**A/N:Don't worry! This isn't the end of the story, I promise!! Plz review!!**

**Song for Wrench's pain and depression:  
~Down-Jason Walker**

**Note:Like stories that make you cry? Read this chapter while listening to the song, and you will be captured by the intenseness of Wrench's agony. I cried twice while I was writing this and listening to the song at the same time!!**

**~Damon SalvatoreLuver :-)**


	33. Another Author Note!

**A/N:****Tanya Mai's story ****still ****isn't over yet! She still has to figure out how to kill Tanner without the aid of her missing brother Damon, and now that Elena has returned, Tanya Mai is determined to kill her cold-blooded, even if it means killing Stefan, her own younger brother, first. However, Tanner is still out there, and now a new source of Power has allied itself with him, and it craves Tanya Mai's death as much as Tanner does. But Tanya Mai is more alone than she had ever felt in five hundred years. Zane is starting to show his true feelings for Tanya Mai, and he's desperate to heal her torn wounds and help her feel like family to him. But is it enough to get her through? Or will Tanner and the new Power get to her first?**

**~Hey! DamonSalvatoreLuver here!! Just wanted to once again thank everyone whom has read my story and has posted a review. And I also wish to state that if my story is a bit too long, I apologize. So please bare with me and I hope you guys tell your friends and family about this story and recommend it. Thank you for listening and reading my story!!**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**


	34. Chapter 34

~"Hey, Zane. Have you noticed that Wrench is still acting strange?" Zach asked, nudging Zane with his elbow. Both boys were working the cash registers today, and Zane was being awfully quiet. Probably due to his worried feelings towards the shop's number one worker, Tanya Mai.

Zane looked up from placing money in the cash register and gave Zach a look. "Is that an issue?" he asked. Zane flashed a smile to the customer, a cute blonde woman with three girls behind her. "Thank you, come again."

Zach was watching this. "No, I'm just worried about her. I never see her anymore. Do you?"

Zane shook his head. "The only time I see her is when we all go to bed and I catch her before she goes into her room."

Both boys continued their work with the customers, thinking about the only worker who seemed so wrapped up in depression for almost two weeks now. Tanya Mai, or "Wrench," had almost lost her life from a severe fever and a horrible neck wound, and none of the boys could identify the animal that had attacked her. She barely ever talked about it; actually, she never talked at all anymore.

Zach had found her behind an oak tree, shivering and bleeding her life away. She was dirty and wet, and her soft, lovely black curls were clumped with damp soil and rain. Dan, Jake and Blake, Zach, and Zane had taken her back to Zane's hotel suite, covered her in blankets, and treated her neck with special care. Then Zane called a doctor to come and look at her wounds. But even the doctor couldn't conclude her neck wound. The most heart-breaking effect on her was the way she stared and cried.

Shortly after they had found her, she screamed in pain in Zane's arms, and nearly blacked out. She wept for hours on end, and Zane never left her side. He coddled her while she cried, and in the end he had to rock her to sleep. The following days were agony for her. She avoided crowds and direct questions, never talked to anyone, and she stopped playing poker with the boys, which shocked everyone because that was her favorite pass-time with the boys on weekends.

Four days later, Dan declared that it was safe to go back to the shop and resume working. Nothing changed expect Wrench. And that Tanner Hawkins had disappeared from the face of the earth. The boys searched for days to find the guy, but after five days of endless finding and with no such luck, they gave up and prayed he didn't end up dead or injured somewhere. Their biggest concern was Wrench for now.

Now, two weeks after her finding, and after a few days of dusting off the work benches and polishing the counters, Dan's Auto N Repair Shop was working at full speed as if nothing had happened in the first place.

Zane and Zach worked fast and long, and after about ten minutes, Wrench came around. Zane perked up a little and walked towards her.

"Hey, Wrench," he said, patting her shoulder. He grinned at her, waiting for her to give him the smirk and lightly punch his shoulder like they used to.

But Wrench never looked at him; she didn't even seem to hear him. She moved like a robot; slow and automatic. Zane, nicknamed "Bolt", noted how her skin used to be a light cream color, soft and lovely. Now it was waxy and too pale for comfort. She even looked skinnier, like she had gone anorexic over the break at the hotel. Her hair used to be shiny; it was bleak now.

"Hey," Bolt said gently, touching her arm. "Is there anything I can do to help out?"

Her head turned slowly and looked at him. The look in her once beautiful eyes tugged at his heart. She looked almost desperate...alone and depressed. Zane knew her problems. He knew that she was always depressed due to a certain blond girl breaking her heart. But Wrench rarely showed her depression. Now it looked like it was her only mask she ever wore.

Bolt reluctantly reached out and brushed a few strands of curly hair away from her brow. Zane was Wrench's best friend and was always there to help her out. But he was never able to get through to her lately. She clammed up easily, but she let Bolt care for her and make sure she didn't kill herself or anything.

Wrench tried to make her lips twitch, but they never reached her eyes. Bolt felt like crying. He had never seen her in such bad shape. She had been in such conditions before, but they were never as horrible as this.

"Want a cup of coffee to help?" he asked. Though she shook her head, he gently led her to the employee lounge. Bolt filled two styro-foam cups with black coffee, added lots of sugar and cream to one, and handed the other to Wrench. She drank it black robotically. Both neither said a word, but each others presence was nice and comfortable.

Jake and Blake burst into the room, laughing like little girls from a joke Dan had told them a second ago. Jake's gayness was reflected in his laugh and voice, and Blake was such a lady's man sometimes because of the way he acted a lot. Both were identical Twins, though some of their appearances were their own, like their eyes and choices for sexuality.

Both brothers laughed and punched each other playfully, and Jake threw an arm around Blake's neck in a head-lock and muffled his hair. They looked happy and relaxed next to each other. Wrench's heart jumped at the sight, and she placed her head in her arms, crying softly. Her brothers weren't like that; they were hateful towards each other and tense., and they treated her like dirt they could step on.

Bolt immediately recognized her shoulders shaking. "Hey, idiots from planet Mars! Shut up!" They stopped laughing, watching Wrench with anxiety and worry. Bolt rubbed her back, soothing her with soft words. Jake and Blake apologized and left, leaving them alone.

"Wrench," Bolt murmured. "Why won't you tell me what's wrong? I want to help, but you're not letting me."

Wrench raised her head slightly, wiping her eyes. "You wouldn't understand if I did telll you," she choked. Bolt started. That was new. He hadn't heard her talk in a long time.

"I'll try to keep up," he promised. He tried a warm, gentle smile that she used to love more than anything in the world. But she never looked his way. She was more focused on the rim of her coffee cup.

Wrench shook her head. "No; even if I explained in every detail I could you still wouldn't be able to keep up." Wrench sniffled again, took one more sip of coffee, and made for the door. "I have to get back to work. See you later." And she walked out without another sound. Bolt simply watched her go, not really knowing what else to do. He had tried to talk to her for days on end, but now it seemed virtually hopeless to bring her out of her depression state.

Giving up on what to do to help her, he sighed, drank the rest of his coffee and returned to his work station next to Zach. Zach looked up when he spotted Zane behind his shoulder.

"Hey. Any luck?" he asked, almost completely ignoring his customer; an impatient looking father with a camouflage jacket on. His son was just as strict looking.

Zane shook his head. "I don't think anything will help her now. All we have to do hope and wish God will help her heal. Because I don't think her fever or injury was the cause of this mess."

The impatient customer stomped his foot. "Is my order going to be done today, boys? Or am I going to have to wait until the sun explodes?" he snapped quite loudly. Zach and Zane gave him a look and handed him his car's battery. Zach charged him the amount needed to pay for it, then both boys flipped off the customer at the back of his head. Not a very nice gesture, but they had it hard enough without the help of grumpy people.

Zach put the cash in the register and looked at Zane. "What do you think is making her feel so horribly? A problem with her past or something?" he asked.

The other boy shrugged. "Nothing that I can think about. You?"

"I'm dumb enough to say no."

"You think Dan might know?"

"I don't believe it. She always tells me or one of the boys before telling him, but I can't be too sure."

"Doesn't hurt to ask."

"Good luck with that. Asked him two days ago and he said he doesn't have the slightest clue."

"Oh."

They were both silent for a while, hust taking orders and smiling like they meant it. But the smiles hid their anxiety and confusion.

Wrench reappeared at the counter to fish for some extra bolts for her project, and all Zane and Zach could do was watch with worry. She walked right in and out again like they didn't even exist.

Zane jerked a thumb at her when she left the back door. "You don't get depressed like that with a neck wound unless you have a story behind it. Got a theory about her depression?"

"I might have a theory."

The fresh voice was soft and smooth, with a hint of amusement. Both boys turned around, and stared. The new voice belonged to a dark stranger with black pelt-like hair with pure rainbow highlights racing across his head. Dark Ray-Bans covered his eyes, and they sat in the right position on the bridge of his straight nose. He wore all black...that was it. A new leather belt and jacket, black jeans and T-shirt, and black boots with a metallic clink when he walked. He was definitely a dark stranger; a dark stranger with a slight smile on his lips.

"Is this how Dan's Auto N Repair Shop handle their customers? Gaping mouths and shocked expressions?" he asked, sliding off his Ray-Bans. His eyes were like black holes; deep and dark. He stared at both of the boys levelly, as if he was sizing them up.

Zach was staring open-mouthed at the dark stranger, obviously wondering how he was so attractive, but Zane, on the other hand, recovered from his shock, and tried a small grin. "Please excuse me and my friend here. It's just that you look very...similar to someone who works here. A girl, to be specific."

The dark stranger chuckled a smooth laugh. "A girl, huh? Well, I've been compared to a lot pf things. So don't feel so apologetic," he stated.

Zane smiled, and elbowed Zach to keep him from staring any longer. Zach snapped his mouth shut and flushed. "So," Zane said politely. "What can I do for you today, sir?"

"I'm here to see someone," the dark stranger said.

Zach blinked and shook his head. "Okay. Are you here to see the manager or a specific employee?" he asked, sounding stupid.

"A specific employee," the dark stranger replied.

"And who would that be?" Zane said slowly, waving his hands around.

The dark stranger's slight smile slid off his face, and the next masl he wore was stone cold and icy. _Very_ icy. "My name is Damon Salvatore. And I've come to see my sister, Tanya Mai Salvatore."


	35. Chapter 35

**Song for Moment With Damon, Zane, and Tanya Mai:  
~Russian Roulette-Rihanna**

**SPOILERS!!! If you have not read The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall, then either read on clueless or STOP READING AND READ THE VAMPIRE DIARIES LATEST BOOK AND THEN COME BACK TO THIS STORY!!!!**

**And for those who have read the most recent book, I am going to change some of it. Hope you like my changes. I won't change too much, though!! :-D**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**

~Zane returned five minutes later with a gloomy looking Tanya Mai in tow. Damon had waited behind the counter, smirking at Zach with dark eyes. But when his sister appeared, he straightened up and grinned. But his grin was soon lost when he saw her depressed expression and sagged body. Damon flinched when he noted her body looking thinner than he remembered, and how her eyes suggested little sleep. He cocked his head to the side, watching her move strangely. Shuffled steps and a slow stride. But she used to walk with fast steps and long strides. Damon also felt little Power flow through her; it wasn't even enough to compel someone. Damon felt worried now. Has his absence destroyed her deep within herself?

Zane gestured for Damon to come into the back room, and he followed. Damon sat in a chair and stared at his sister with worry. Tanya Mai didn't look up to meet her brother's eyes. She sat deathly still in her seat, barely even breathing. Zane sat on the opposite side of her. He watched her, though she hardly moved. Damon sighted tears running down her cheeks. One of her pale hands held up her head.

"_Mi sorella,_" he whispered as she refused to move. He took her other waxy hand and kissed it's palm. It was shaking slightly. Even her once shiny curls were dull and almost gray looking.

"Tanya Mai? Are you alright?" Damon asked gently. He caressed her pale hand with his fingers. _Good God,_ he thought. _She can't look this sick. A week ago she was a young girl that was healthy and lovely. Now she's an aging old lady dying in front of my eyes. How can two weeks destroy her like this?_

Tanya Mai shook her head, and lifted it a bit. It was a very small movement, and her eyes didn't focus very well. Damon reached out and pushed a few strands of her locks behind her ear.

"Lord, what has she done to herself?" Damon asked Zane.

"We don't know. She won't say anything to us. We've tried to help her, but we can't do anything," he replied. Zane rubbed her back.

"What do you want, Damon?" Tanya Mai asked. Her voice was throaty and croaked.

"I came to see you. To make sure you were alright." He was quiet for a while before adding, "I guess your condition answers my question." Both men watched her breath painfully and slowly for a long time. Damon kept his hold on her hand, feeling how hard it shook. Blue veins showed beneath her skin, clearly visible, even for a human.

A strange sensation hit Damon then. He started to feel tears swell up in his eyes and spill over his cheeks. Damon Salvatore, Don Juan of darkness, was crying for someone else other than himself. His soul was as dark and hard as the devil's, but in his sister's precence, he felt soft and helpless. Just looking at her right now...it hit him deep.

Damon didn't cry out loud, and his tears were small, but he let them go. Just for her, and her only.

"Zane, can I have a few moments alone, please?" he asked Zane softly. Zane nodded and left them. Damon scooted his chair closer to her.

"Tanya Mai; look at me," he ordered her.

She didn't move.

"Tanya Mai."

Nothing.

"Please, sweet sister."

She slowly looked at him.

"What's wrong? What happened with Tanner when he dragged you off at the fight with Klaus?" he asked her. The mention of the fight made Tanya Mai cringe at the thought. Her small shoulders started to shake.

"You don't care anymore, Damon," she whispered. "Just go; I don't mean anything to you anymore."

Those words hit Damon hard. "What do you mean? I told you I would never leave you," he murmured.

"You broke your promise; you love Elena more than me; fine. Just leave me be." She got up and left the room.

Damon was left in confusion and broken pieces.

* * *

~She hurt everywhere. Every joint and pore inside her was agony. Wrench walked automatically to her room, locked the door and sank to the floor, crying. She had missed Damon, but he loved Elena more than her, so she was going to let him have his way.

She just wished her body didn't feel like it was submerged in acid all the time.

Even after two weeks of being safe in the arms of Zane and Dan, she still felt alone and helpless. She had stopped feeding; the blood tasted odd to her now. Nightmares of Tanner haunted her head, so she rarely slept. And her mind was always on her damn brothers, which interfered with her job.

She knew that all the boys were worried about her, and it was eating at her because she was never going to be able to explain her situation to the boys without telling them her vampire secret. And she knew he would kill herself if the boys freaked out about her being a blood-sucking creature and staked her through her heart.

Wrench worked for hours on end, without hardly ever taking a break. She had no energy left to stay alive, but she felt that if her hands were doing something then it would get her mind off her brothers and keep her from thinking about killing herself somehow. It was all going quite well.

Then her older brother Damon came to the shop. It was shocking as well as relieving. If she wasn't in such a sad state, she would've thrown herself into his arms and cried in front of the whole shop. Instead, her imagination showed her the reality.

She had won her battle with Tanner, but it was momentarily. Damon had left her alone when she was bleeding and hurt, and he hadn't showed up in over two weeks. And she had the vaguest idea that he had been with Stefan and Elena. She smelled Stefan and Elena all over him.

There was no way that she could ever get rid of this pain she felt in her body. Not unless someone helped her get through her depression.

* * *

~Damon drove his Ferrari a bit slower than his usual speed when he was feeling strange. When he felt unusual, he always exceeded the speed limit, and he loved the windows down just to show off to the pretty girls. But the strange feeling was over-whelming, and he didn't _feel_ like showing off to a pretty face tonight. His thoughts were too busy with his sister.

There was no way-next to impossible-that his sister could look so sick. Vampires were supposed to be strong and healthy. Damon had never known that even an immortal creature would look so sick and on the verge of dying. Tanya Mai had that look in her eyes like a little girl that said, _Help me, please._Damon just didn't know now to make her feel better. Maybe some blood would help. He barely felt a wave of Power flow through her

_Dammit!_ Damon thought as he slammed a hand against the steering wheel. _How can she make me feel so upset and not-so under control of my feelings?_

The same sensation he felt at the shop made him cry again, and he revved his engine to keep himself from crying out loud.

* * *

~_Stef...an?_

"Yes, my little lovely love?" Stefan stood in the doorway of the bedroom, watching his angel sit in the window's glass reflection across the wooden floor. She was floating slightly, and her aura was golden, as was her hair. Eyes as blue as the midnight sky, she was the most beautiful girl in the world.

Elena Gilbert turned to Stefan Salvatore and smiled slightly, sending him a single name that was also a full thought. Long black curls...brown and red eyes....plump figure..._Tanya Mai._

Elena had woken up sort of like a living spirit after the fight with Klaus, and she had lost all her experience and acted like a child often, but it was only temporary. Stefan knew deep inside she was the old Elena Gilbert, but her slumber in the spirit world and then being brought back gave her a child-like mind. She had just recently learned how speak to him through her thoughts. But the most recent thought that he could not understand clearly was that Elena thought her one best friend was Tanya Mai Janine Salvatore, his older sister. Tanya Mai was the only one that Elena remembered from her previous life. Elena's other friends came over the other day, but she had no idea who they were at first. Tanya Mai was a totally different subject.

But what was confusing was that the two girls hated each other bitterly before Elena had died, and Tanya Mai would've loved to spit on Elena when she would get the chance. But Elena remembered Tanya Mai as her best friend in this stage. Stefan had lost track of Tanya Mai a while ago, and so he didn't know if she was even in town anymore.

"Little lovely love, I don't understand," he explained as she was sending him thoughts of his hot-head of a sister. Back in Renaissance Italy, Stefan and his older brother Damon had neglected Tanya Mai, and she hated them for it. Since her depression took her over completely, she had become hard and cold as ice, only she was colder than that. She had hated Stefan especially, maybe because he had a more interest in Katherine, Tanya Mai's dire enemy, than his own family. Tanya Mai was someone he would never understand fully.

_Best friend...Tanya....can...we...go see...her? Please?_ Elena's mental voice was clear like crystal and it rang in his head like silver bells. Elena was anxious to go see Tanya Mai, but her face fell as he shook his head. Tears swelled up in her eyes.

"We can't, love. I don't know where she is," Stefan said, walking to stand next to her. He caught her every tear with a tissue he grabbed from the bedside table next to the bed that Elena slept in.

_Tanya...works...at the sh...shop._ Elena was desperate now.

"I haven't seen her since then." Stefan wrapped an arm around her shoulders, holding her close so he could feel her warmth.

_Please? Can we go...f...f..._ Elena bumped his chin hopefully.

"Maybe I will go find her when you're asleep. But I can't take you out like this. We will wait until later, okay little lovely love?" But Stefan wasn't sure if it was safe to bring Elena near Tanya Mai. Before the fight with Katherine, Tanya Mai had nearly killed Elena with her bare hands, choking the life out of her. Stefan had vowed to keep his sister away from Elena from now on.

_But...but...Tanya is my...best friend. Please?_

"I don't want to hurt you, love. but we can't do it today. You will have to wait until later on."


	36. Chapter 36

**A/N: ****Some of what you will read is straight from the book, and I disclaim whatever is from the book. It is all L.J. Smith's work.**

**And one more thing, for those of you that have read the Return:The Nightfall, I am going to speed this scene up a little bit because there is so much I can write in one chapter(lol). So please bare with me, people. Thank you!!!**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**

~Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt had just finished their quick visit to Stefan at the boarding house to check on Elena, and she was different. Elena stared out the window the whole time they were there, thinking about Tanya Mai, or "Wrench," is what the immortal girl likes to call herself. Elena had asked them all if they had seen Wrench recently, but all of them said no, and Elena went back to thinking about Tanya Mai. No one could even understand why she would be thinking about the one person Elena had hated in her previous life as a vampire. They both hated each other very bitterly.

Now that all of them-Meredith, Bonnie, and Matt-were in Matt's car, and he was driving with a strange, thoughtful expression on his face. Meredith was busy with her phone, and Bonnie was also thinking. She had found out that Stefan was planning to leave the town to get Elena away from all the vampire stuff and everything else that had happened to her, and they had lost her all the time. Bonnie just didn't want to lose Elena again.

"Just when I thought everything was going to be alright," she nearly wailed. Bonnie was almost weeping. "Just when I thought it's all going to work out after all. It's going to be the way it's _supposed_ to be."

Meredith was more gentle. "It's difficult, I know. We keep on losing her. But we can't be selfish," she said.

"_I_ can," Bonnie said flatly.

The car was quiet again, and Bonnie held back tears. But, though she wanted to stay quiet, she kept on talking.

"We were supposed to go to college together. And then we were supposed to comeback here to Fell's Church. Back_ home._We had it all planned out-since kindergarten, practically-and now Elena's human again, and I thought that meant that everything was going to go back to the way it's _supposed_ to be. And it's never going to be the same again, _ever_, is it?"

"I guess," Matt answered slowly after a few painful moments. "that's what we were all sort of thinking, really, when she first came back." He paused. "I guess we sort of thought that they could live quietly somewhere near Fell's Church, and that things would go back to the way they were before. Before Stefan... "

"Not Stefan," Meredith interrupted. "Stefan would never have done this on accident."

"You're right," Matt continued. "I was just thinking about something like that. She and Stefan could have probably worked out some way to live here quietly. Or at least to stay close to us, you know. It was Damon. He came to take Elena against her will, and that changed everything.

"And now Elena and Stefan are leaving. And once they leave, they'll never come back. Why did Damon start all this?" Bonnie wailed again.

"He likes to change things out of pure boredom, Stefan told me once. This time it probably started out of hatred for Stefan." Meredith said. She was quiet for a while. "But I wish that for once he could have just left us alone."

"What difference does it make?" Bonnie was crying now. "I don't care if it was Damon's fault anymore! What I don't understand is why things have to change!"

"'You can never cross the same river twice,'" Meredith quoted. "Maybe you're asking the wrong person. Maybe Elena's the one who could tell you why things have to change, if she remembers what happened to her...in the Other Place."

"I didn't_ mean_ that they _do_ have to change..."

"But they do. It's not supernatural; it's life. Everything has to change..."

"I know!" Bonnie shouted. "Matt has a football scholarship and you're going away to college and get _married!_ And probably have babies! I'm going to be stuck in junior college forever. And you guys will be all grown up and forget about Elena and Stefan and...me." The last word was a little murmured squeak.

Matt threw an arm around Bonnie's small shoulders and pulled her close. "Hey. What are you talking about? I'm coming back to Fell's Church after college to live. I'll probably die right..."

"_Watch out!"_

_"Matt, look out!_

_"Whoa...!"_

Matt crushed the brake with his foot, swearing, slamming it to the floor. But it did no good. The car swirved on it's tires and spun wildly until it was in a ditch and hit a tree in front of them. Branches from the tree were struck inside the car's windshield, and more branches thrust inside right in front of Meredith. Matt had released his death-grip on the steering wheel, and flipped on the map light and looked at the girls. He froze.

Bonnie had her head in Meredith's lap, and her small hands were locked on the other girl's arm and shirt. The branch above her barely brushed her, but it was close enough to slice into her blouse. Meredith, however, was in a more dangerous position.

Meredith had thrown her whole body backwards, sitting in a braced position with her feet on the floor beneath the dashboard, and her hands kept Bonnie's arms pinned to her lap. A huge tree branch, the size of a green lance, was sticking itself into the open window and it just cleared the base of Meredith's long, elegant throat.

Matt found himself staring straight into the splintered but very sharp end of the lance. He also noticed that the branches in the car were doing something strange. They were somehow moving.

Little branches around the huge lance were using ther needles to slice into more than just Bonnie's clothes. He saw little blood spots blooming on her blouse due to the blood coming from the needles poking at her.

"Ohmygod, Matt! Where's the seatback release?" Meredith's choked but anxious voice said.

"Bonnie, there's a little handle, you should be able to reach it and fold her seat back!"

Bonnie's voice sounded like she was hiccuping. "My arms....they're poking into...my arms..."

"Bonnie," Meredith's thick voice said. "I know you can do it. Matt...is the handle...right...under...the front seat or..."

"Yes," Matt answered. "At the edge. One...no, two o clock."

Matt just hoped someone would come save them before the trees killed them all.

* * *

~Wrench was still sitting on her bed weeping softly when a slight noise caught her attention. She stopped crying and perked up a little, listening.

_A metallic crunch...a slight scream...an exploding tire..._

It didn't sound right to her but she didn't have the energy to get up off her bed and go see what was all the trouble. Nor did she really care at this point.

Suddenly, though, a small wave of Power hit her, and with it came Bonnie's mental voice._ Somebody help us! Please help us!_ Wrench knew her depression was going to get her somewhere she didn't want to be, but she was a good person buried within her depression, so she stood, dressed all in black so now one would recognized her when they walked by or saw her, and vaulted out her window. She began to run.

Running was second nature to a vampire, and you can never get tired if you were one. But her lack of nutrition in her system was making her weak and uncoordinated. None the less, she fought to her limits and ran in the direction from which the mental cry for help came from.

Wrench knew her brothers, and the guys at work, wouldn't understand her at all. Her depression was swamping her deeply, consuming her every emotion, but her feelings towards Bonnie and her friends were overwhelming her like a wave over the rocks on a beach. She was covered in depression and mixed up emotions, like a simple rock on the sand, then stronger feelings washed over her like a tsunami over the rock. Good Lord, she was such a mess!

She was still running when she realized that she had lost the trail. She slowed down and reached out with the little Power she had in her system and felt the stale feel of the mental cry coming from her slight left. She huffed, sucked in a breath, and sprinted again.

She had no idea where this part of town was; she hadn't been in Fell's Church for very long, and she had no time to go out and search every corner of the place. She was too scared she might have found her brothers or something else that was ready to kill her. So she left the town alone. Now she had to travel through the forest just to get to Bonnie and possibly Bonnie's friends.

Along the way, she passed a road where a black Porsche with a strange looking thing floating behind the car on a clothes line was zooming down the road. When the car saw her, however, it screeched in protest on it's tires, engine still running.

And around the other corner, her older brother Damon was literally flying towards the boarding house, an unconscious looking Bonnie over his shoulder. But stopped instantly when he saw his sister and stared emotionless at her. The driver's door of the black Porsche opened, and there stood her younger brother Stefan, with his bright green eyes and wavy ocean-like hair and Italian-sculpture's face.

He stood there, obviously not expecting his older sister to come across the road, but he stood there with-Elena?-floating freely from the clothes line tied to his car. He took a few steps forward to examine her more closely, then turned to Damon.

It was obvious that it was Elena floating from the clothes line tied to her waist, and her face was bright with happiness and joy as Elena stared at Wrench. Elena was thought to be a beauty when she was human, but now...people could have mistaken her for an angel now. Her hair was true gold, as were the reflections in her lapis lazuli eyes as dark as the midnight sky. Her skin was creamy and lovely, almost pale but not quite. Her body was long and slender, almost like a ballet dancer.

What shocekd Wrench the most was Elena's aura. the angelic girl's aura was strong with Power, and it reeked around the blonde girl everywhere. Even with her tiny senses Wrench knew that Elena was filled with lots of Power.

She ignored the smile on Elena's stupid angelic face and turned to her brothers.

"What the hell are you doing?" Stefan shouted at his brother.

"What the hell are _you_ doing?" Damon snapped back.

"What the hell are you _both_ doing?" Wrench had the courage to break in and yell at them from the top of her lungs. If only she had the guts to kill them both right now.


	37. Chapter 37

~Wrench stared at her brothers with a numb feeling crawling up her spine so it engulfed her whole body. Stared at Stefan...stared at Damon...stared at Elena...then back to Stefan. She felt a weird anger bubble up in her chest, especially when she glared hard at Elena's golden brightness.

"Well, _sorella,_ I could say the same for you, if you weren't yelling so loudly," Damon replied smoothly with a slight grin.

"Tanya Mai?" Stefan murmured, taking a few more steps towards her. Wrench growled loudly, and swiped at his handsome face. Stefan swatted her hand away, and snarled at her. But his face relaxed and he drank in her pale features and skinny figure. "What happened to you?" He took a step towards her to brush hair out of her eyes. Instead of snapping at him, she sniffed the air, and took off in the direction of Meredith and Matt. She could smell the burned out engine from nearly the three miles she ran. Faintly, an engine started up, and Wrench's weak senses picked up Elena's Power. And she felt Damon's aura come after her, too. So...her two sons of bitches for brothers were following her. Oh, great.

Wrench skidded to a stop at a deserted road where Matt's truck was stuck in a ditch with constricting trees crunching the car into scraps and pieces of rusty metal. Wrench smelled fresh resin and blood pumping from the front seat. She dared one stunt she knew she probably couldn't do because she was so weak. She jumped into the ditch, and peered through the windshield.

Matt and Meredith were laid back flat in their seats, and the branches around them were pricking their pine needles into their skin.

"Matt! Meredith! Be alive!" she shouted at them. Both humans had their eyes on her.

"Wrench! The trees are crushing us! Help!" Matt screamed back. He suddenly looked hopeful, and began to wriggle in his seat.

Wrench pounded the windshield with her fists. "Matt! Whatever you do, do not move! Let me do it! Just stay put! And when I say so, open your doors and jump out, okay?" she yelled. They both nodded painfully. She got to work then.

The lance-looking branch poking it's point through Meredith's door was the first to go, and Wrench bit into it, and like a dog gnawing at a bone, she scraped and chewed with her teeth. It was already harder than it already was; she was getting tired too quickly. But she was going to push to the limits until she collapsed if she had to.

It was long and painful for her canines, but the lance came clean off, and she tossed it away. Then jumped to the hood of the car, and ripped off sections of the wrapping branches around the car's hood, and pushed off the downed tree crushing the top. That was the easy part at least.

From behind her, Elena's golden aura rang through Wrench's body, and Wrench glanced up one quick look and spied Stefan and Elena watching. She shook her head in sorrow and madness. But Damon was charging down the hill after her. Ignoring him, Wrench tore off more branches.

"Unlock Matt's door!" she shouted at Damon. He said nothing; he simply obeyed. She unlocked Meredith's door, and told them to be still until she told them to move. Damon had bashed open the windshield, and was pulling at the branch nearly choking Matt into the seat.

Wrench flung herself down in the ditch, eyes flicking this way and that for a...Aha! A little cave beneath the back fender of the truck. She curled her small body into the hole. The truck's back fender was sinking slightly into the soft dirt packed there, but there was finger room for her to feel around for a good grip on the fender. She probably didn't have enough strength for pulling out the car from the front; so she was going to push with all her might. After fitting her fingers into a decent spot, she curled her fingers, say forward on the balls of her feet, and heaved.

The metal crunched and groaned a bit, but it resisted her lifts and yanks upward. She huffed out a sigh of frustration. Out of nowhere, Damon's smooth, unemotionless voice came from the little opening.

"Tanya Mai! What the hell are you doing?" he shouted at her.

She cursed at him for being a lazy person, and ordered him to pull the front bumper on the car. He ran around to the front. She heaved again.

This time, with Damon's unbeatable strength, the car began to slowly lift out of the dirt. She remembered Dan's words he used to scorn her with whenever she lifted things. "Tanya, if you lift with your back, you'll break it. Use your knees. They give better leverage, and they're harder to break." Wrench bent her knees at nearly right angles, put all her weight on her knees, and lifted.

The truck creaked, going higher and higher. When it got the point where she would have flung it, she screamed, "Matt; Meredith! Jump out of the car NOW!" She heard slight grunts and thuds, and saw Meredith's shoes run the opposite way.

"DAMON! MOVE!" Then used the last of her strength to fling the car away, and her shoulder gave out. Clutching it, she watched the car hit the tree opposite the road, and crunch. Meredith and Matt were scrambling out of the ditch, and Damon was pulling Wrench out of the ditch with him.

"Wrench, that was amazing," Meredith stated, and she gripped Wrench's other arm.

"Thank me later. You guys and Bonnie need to recover. Go back to the boarding house and get cleaned up. Now," she commanded, standing up. "No arguments." They listened instantly.

Damon swung Wrench up in his arms, and ran with her back in his arms to the boarding house. She clung to him with ehr one free arm; the other swung like it was dead from her other shoulder.

The boarding house was madness. Everyone was walking around, checking their wounds and making sure the others were okay. Wrench had let Damon start an argument over something stupid, Matt and Meredith were being-kissed?!-by Elena, and her kisses made them feel and look better. Bonnie was watching Wrench with a blanket around her small shoulders.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie squeaked at her. Bonnie was terribly worried at Wrench's rag-doll of a body and pale skin and sadden eyes. Wrench nodded, and cradled her dis-located shoulder Damon said he would fix. But he was too busy with his little aruging cherade with Stefan. Wrench did it herself, slinging her arm in a wide circle, and groaned at the pain. She pulled her arm, and scrunched her face in agony when the pain picked at her muscles. Bonnie jumped up.

"Wrench, stop! Let someone do it for you," Bonnie cried, kneeling down next to her. Her worried cry got the attention of Matt and Meredith. They both gave Elena little pats on her bent knees-Elena sat in mid-air in cross-legged-and hurried over to Wrench.

"I'm okay, Bonnie. Worry about yourself right now," Wrench croaked, and tried to fix her mangled limb.

"No, you won't! No hold still," Matt stated.

Wrench smiled very weakly at his sympathy. "Matt, I'm a vampire. You need a vampire to do it. My limb too strong, even if it's dis-located." Meredith disappeared into the bathroom where Damon was still fussing around with Stefan, but came out a minute later with Damon on her trail.

"Tanya Mai, stop struggling," he ordered. He got a grip on her arm, and began to painful process of placing the long bone back into position.

Wrench looked over his shoulder. Stefan was just standing there, watching Elena. He smiled slightly as she looked at him. Sparks flew between them-the good sparks-even as his wounded sister was in the room. Tears rolled down her face.

After her shoulder was back in place, she got up to leave, but Stefan cried, "Elena, no!" And Wrench felt warm, slender arms encircle her.

She growled, and whirled. She bared sharp teeth and snapped at the angelic girl's cheek. Elena gave a small childish cry, and backed away a pace. Wrench crouched and let out a defensive howl at her. Elena, taken back with such confusion, stared at Wrench with fat tears falling down that beautiful piece of art people called "Her Face."

"Tanya Mai, how could you be so thoughtless?!" Stefan screeched at her, standing between Elena and Wrench. Wrench slapped him so hard he flew to the ground.

* * *

~Bonnie was just horrified. Not only did Wrench rescue Meredith and Matt almost by herself in her depressed state, Stefan was taking Elena's side when it was Elena who actually started the fight. Wrench was only defending herself. Now Stefan had really gotten to Wrench.

Wrench had slapped him across the cheek so hard that he went backwards into the floor, holding his face. Bright blood gleamed on his fingers, and he stared at her with teeth sharp and bared.

"THOUGHTLESS?! Wrench roared. Her frame was quivering with pure rage. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS SO SELF-CENTERED AROUND THIS BLOND WHORE WHOSE HAD MORE LOVE-LIFES THAN THE SKY! DON'T EVER TAKE IT OUT ON ME AGAIN, BOY!" Damon chuckled at the phrase he like to call Stefan by. Wrench hit him, too. Damon was shocked beyond anything Bonnie had ever seen.

Elena, watching with a dazed horror, was working to get to Wrench and hug her. But Wrench was pushing at her, calling Elena every bad name she could think of. Bonnie noticed something then.

Both girls were insanely beautiful. Sure they both came from different countries and different time periods, but still. Their looks were generally the same, but in detail and personality, they were very different.

Elena was the All-American beauty queen people would find in a popular high school. She had the body that people found in model magazines, with those gorgeous hips and waist. Elena had some nice, slender legs and arms. Her eyes were like the violet-blue midnight sky after twilight, and her hair was a golden train down past her shoulders. Elena had this soft, golden glow that was sweet and mellow around her, and it showed command and leadership along with her voice. And Elena had gone from an ice princess to a courageous and free girl.

Tanya Mai was an ancient Italian queen you would find in old prtraits of the countryside and beautiful kingdoms or sculptures of Goddesses and Princesses. She had the body of a plus size model, and she even had the model strut when she walked, waist and hips girls would have killed to have. Her legs were long and elegant, and her arms were long and lean. Her own eyes were sometimes mistaken for choclate with rubies set inside them; rich, dark chocolate; and bloosy rubies ran around her irises. Her hair was twirling black curls that other girls were so envious of; they were the real curls, and not the perm curls. Tanya Mai had this kind of free, wild feel about her that made people feel full of energy and wanted to go out and have some fun; thought the feeling was old and distant. Now she felt just sad and desperate.

From a few hints and points from the Salvatore brothers and sometimes Tanya Mai herself showed that Tanya Mai used to be such a sweet, wise young lady. But that had faded away into a cold, free-spirited, sad, and stoic feeling.

But both girls showed leadership and the bravery to up against anything.

Bonnie was so shocked between the girl's beautiful appearances, she rarely knew that the whole room turned catastrophic until Wrench pushed Stefan into the window across the room.

**A/N:Sorry it's such a weak chapter. I wrote this non-stop until midnight and my mom busted me for staying up so late. So please R/R and tell me what you think!!!! :-D**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**


	38. Chapter 38

~Stefan had blown it. His selfishness and defensive statement towards Wrench had made her so angry she wanted to spit in his face. Elena was softly weeping; she wanted know why Wrench was being so harsh to her. The other humans were too shocked to even breathe. Even Damon, the least of all the people in the room, was so baffled by his sister's explosion.

Wrench's body was quivering with rage, her mind racing and a headache beginning to form between her eyes.

"How dare you speak to me like that, Stefan Salvatore! I am your elder sister, and I may be weaker than you, but at least I can throw a car over my head without the need to feed!" she screamed at him. Stefan's teeth were bared and pointed, hissing at Wrench. "No one ever tells me what to do! Got that?!" She turned to Damon. "And you! How could you leave me like that?! I was bleeding and broken, and you just left me walking home on one foot and I came up with a FEVER! A FEVER! VAMPIRES DO NOT GET FEVERS!"

"Tanya Mai, you know I would never..." Damon said, trying to calm his sister, but she interrupted.

"Don't tell me you would never leave me, because it's obvious you don't ever care about anyone but yourself!" Wrench's rage was triggering something in her mind. Little Power flowed through her, but there was a stored area somewhere in the back of her head that was trying to break free of it's prison. What could it be?

Elena was whimpering something underneath her breath, arms reaching out for Wrench, crystal tears running down her face. Wrench snarled, and snapped her teeth at Elena. Stefan got in her face, gripping her by the throat. Wrench shoved him into the window.

At that point, things began to go chaotic.

Thunder crashed outside, and lightening forked down onto the earth. It made the room shake slightly, but hard enough to knock over loose objects. The shattered window's glass started to fly straight towards Elena, Stefan, and Damon, and all three flinched and yelped at the pain. Damon flung himself at his sister to get her to stop her destruction and think, but her eyes and hands threw him into the bathroom, crashing into the bathtub, breaking off fragments of the marble tub.

The humans were all catching hold of something to hang onto the shivering room, but strangely, Bonnie was calm and gentle, watching with approving eyes. Meredith and Matt were yelling at Wrench to stop, but Wrench didn't care.

The room shook harder, and the lamp on the bedside table flew off, the chair in the corner began to sway violently, and the contents in the closet started to swing back and forth, knocking against each other.

Elena was fighting right back, reaching out to Wrench, saying things in a language no one in the room could understand. Wrench stood perfectly still, feeling rage vibrate off her body.

"I can't believe you both just don't understand just how your own sister feels about life and about how the people around her treat her!" Wrench shouted louder. "Five hundred and nineteen fucking years of suffering and being so alone, but I guess the whole world is just too selfish to see or hear the cries and pain around them! Why won't you two just open your eyes for once and look around at your surroundings instead of your own selfish wants?!" Stefan was still growling at her, and Damon was shouting Italian sentences at her.

It was a lightening storm outside now, thunder and lightening crackling outside.

Then it was like a monster had been released from Wrench. Black claws that came from nowhere tore up the bed, another black silhouette pried the floorboards up from the floor, the dresser and closet was going hai-wire, and the lights in the whole boarding house began to flicker. Wrench charged at the floating angel in the middle of the room.

Then...it stopped.

The storm was gone. Lights blew out, but stopped their blinding flashing ceased, and the black monsters disappeared. The window halted throwing glass at the three intended targets. The only other sound was Wrench's drinking and Elena's whimpering.

Wrench was draining Elena's blood, drinking large amounts then spitting them out all over the floor. She didn't have the stomach to drink Elena's blood, so she just drained her blood fatally enough to kill her slowly. Wrench then stood up and glowered at Stefan, smacking him across the cheek again. Elena's rocket-fulled blood dribbled down her mouth.

"Thanks for paying up," she snarled at him. Then walked out after kicking Damon in the stomach.

* * *

~Back at the shop, Zane was just putting a twenty dollar bill into the cash register when he spotted Wrench making her way towards the stairs leading up to the dorms. He asked Jake to take over the counter, and rushed out to greet her.

"Hey Wrench. Dan wants us to...what's wrong?" he suddenly asked, noting her angry expression and stressed brows. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing. I just need to get out of here," she spit, and dashed upstairs. She slammed her door shut, nearly throwing it off it's hinges.

"Damn, fucking, shitty, selfish sons of bitches!" she shouted, raking hands through her hair violently. With a growl of rage, she threw her clothes from her drawers off into the shadows, she ripped her pillows to feathers and shreds, and she gnawed on her arm to keep from screaming. But the pain in her now bleeding arm gave her more anger and frustration.

Soon her room was left like a tornado had been whirling in it, Wrench sprawled across the floor, panting. _I need a therapist_, she thought to herself. Wrench's thoughts were overwhelming her mind, covering all good things with negative thoughts and visuals. A soft knock on the door.

"What?!" she screeched at the door. Her throat hurt from yelling and screaming so much; her shout came out as a hoarse croak.

"Um...are you okay, Tanya?" Zane's sweet, soft voice echoed through the doorway. She opened her clamped shut eyes and looked at her best friend. He drank in all the destruction that was her room.

"No; I feel like shit, buddy," she admitted, still sprawled out on the floor. She made no move to stand up. Zane, looking so worried and obviously confused, shut the door to the bedroom and bent over her, running a hand through her hair. "I hurt everywhere, Zane." Tears came to her eyes. She began to shake very violently. It was true; her entire self was controlled by spikes of pain through out her body. Even her fingertips hurt.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked gently. She shook her head, crying again. Zane took Wrench by the arms and stood up clumsily, and he kept a good hold on her, hugging her. "Tanya Mai, what's wrong? Please tell me what's wrong," he whispered into her ear.

"Zane, I can't," she mumbled back. Wrench pulled her head back enough to look at his deep, grey eyes. "There are somethings that I want to tell you, Zane. Things that have been with me longer than you think. I would just love to tell you them, but there are other things that are required to be kept secret. And the reason why I'm so upset is because of those things. Right now, I just can't tell you because I have so much on my plate right now and..."

"Take it easy, Tanya. I wasn't asking for a whole speech. If you don't have the guts to tell em now, then I'll wait. And I don't mind waiting." He said right before she was going to intervene and say something. "Just tell me soon so you don't suffer and keep it bottled up." He kissed her hair, hugging her closer to him. "I just feel bad that you can't tell me and that I can't help out."

"Actually you just holding me is making me feel better," she confessed into his shoulder. Zane laughed, then held her a little bit more. Wrench, in the meantime, was flushing.

Wrench had admitted into her diary that Damon gave her that she had fallen for Zane. Yes, Tanya Mai Janine Salvatore, known for never to fall in love and to always be so stoic and harsh, had a huge crush on her best friend. Who can help it? Zane was a real looker.

Zane had many qualities about him that attracted Wrench to him. His smell was intoxicating; he smelled earthy and fresh, like most men should smell but never do. And her vampire senses smelled his blood combined with his skin's fragrance. Mouth-watering.

His body was like a model's, sculpted gorgeously around the torso area. A huge six-pack-it now evolved into an eight-pack because that boy worked out so much-was generously chiseled, and his chest was pumped and wonderful, like soft pillows had been stuffed into his chest. His arms were long and warm, and his legs...dear God. It was like God himself put little engines in Zane's feet that could make Zane seem like he could run two hundred miles an hour; they were so strong.

What she found the most attractive was his perfectly shaped face. Square and full, lips thick enough to make girls go crazy over them, and a straight nose. His hair was glossy and black, and his eyes were two deep pools of cloudy fog that could suck someone in and they could be lost forever.

Wrench realized that Zane was whispering her name, her full name, rolling off his tongue in that sweet French she loved to hear him say. _Tanya Mai...Tanya Mai...__Vos yeux sont si bruns... _

Wrench became dizzy. It seemed as though her troubles and pain were melting away somewhere to experience for later. Right now, all that was there was this strange longing for Zane Borington, her best friend. Zane himself was nearly as mesmerized as her, watching the rubies in her eyes glimmer and sparkle. He leaned in his mouth and nose, sniffing her.

_"Vous sentez comme les roses et comme les lys..."_She heard him speak that fluent French perfectly, and her heart fluttered. She loved the natural language of French. Oh, she knew it fluently, being five hundred years old and all, but she had always dreamed that someone else would speak to her in that same romantic tongue. She knew Zane knew how to speak French, since his family origins were French, but he rarely ever spoke French. He only used it when he swore secretly.

"_Ваши глаза походят на объединения облачного тумана, столь глубоко и задумчивый..."_ she spoke back. Wrench also knew that none of the boys knew how to speak Russian, so she used her second native tongue to give him a compliment back.

They leaned into each other slightly, both licking their lips eagerly, wanting to just kiss one another. Wrench kept her arms locked around his neck, standing so close to him their chests were touching. Zane's hands splayed across her back, holding her tightly to him.

Just a little bit more...one small peck on the lips...alone and in love...so close...

"Borington! Salvatore! Where are you two?" Dan shouted from outside the hallway. Zane and Wrench sprung away from each other as though they had been electrocuted. Zane shook his head confused, and Wrench's anger was boiling up again.

"I think I need to go," Zane said hastily.

"Good idea," Wrench agreed, watchign him leave her and her torn up room. Now she was more mad than ever. And not just with her brothers or Elena, either


	39. Chapter 39

~_I think I have a habit of pissing people off,_ Damon thought absently, gazing at his slow working and pain stricken sister. Tanya Mai was tightening a loose bolt on a pipe, but this was her third time catching her breath from lack of energy. It was obvious she needed blood. _I wonder if there is any way I can force blood down my sister's throat..._Then Damon rolled his eyes at his own stupid idea and went from crow to human form in the blink of an eye. His ears pricked up when Zane entered her office and began chatting with her.

"Tanya, can you please tell me what to do? I just want to help," the pesky human named Zane was saying. Damon waited for his sister to answer, but she just leaned against her work bench painfully, deeply breathing.

"Tanya, please," Zane begged.

"Zane, please go away. I am in no mood to argue with you. I just want to work on this," she finally said. Her voice was dry like dust.

"But Tanya, you've been at it for days on end. You never take breaks, you miss poker night, and the boys are terribly worried about you. Please rest yourself. You need a vacation anyway." Zane gently brushed her arm with his fingertips. _Never knew he could be so interested in my hot head of a sister,_ Damon thought.

"Zane! Just leave me be!" Tanya Mai shouted at him. She gave Zane a shove, and, with tears filming her precious eyes, turned back to her task. Zane, standing there, shocked and baffled, let his head fall a little, then shuffled out, defeated as though he was a defeated soldier in battle.

Damon raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised.

Damon felt a little guilty for leaving his sister in pain while he did his task after the battle with Klaus, now knowing what his absence had done to Tanya Mai. Now that he had come back, he noticed how badly his absence treated her. He felt bad.

With a deep breath, he entered his sister's garage, being careful not to scare her. He knew she was mad at him-hence she nearly killed Elena at the boarding house-but he just had to apologize, something he hadn't done in nearly five hundred years.

"My sweet, delicate sister," he greeted, gently smiling. Wrench's body tightened at the smoothness of his voice. Her hunched back was still to him. He walked up behind her and stroked two fingers along her fragile spine. "Has your rainy day brightened a little at all?"

"You don't care if I a feeling better or not," she mumbled. Her shuffled feet took her back to her bench, retrieving a screwdriver.

"Of course I do. I will always care what happens to you, my fragile sister." He took the tool from her, rubbing her hand. Even her long fingers looked like arthritis had twisted those fingers into breakable twigs.

Something more than guilt and pain tugged at his heart, even as he turned her face up to look at him. Her haunted eyes were glassy and teary, eyelashes balancing tears like crystals along their length.

"Tanya Mai, you really need to feed. You will mummify if you don't. You need just a little. It will make you feel so much better." He moved to bite his wrist. But her jerky hand stopped him.

"No one cares if I'm gone. You don't care...Stefan doesn't care...Elena isn't _supposed_ to care but she acts like I am her best friend or something...Tanner doesn't care...Dan doesn't care...no one cares." Tears fell down her cheeks. "Maybe I should just set myself on fire just to get rid of the pain," she added, eyeing a small blow torch to weld on pieces of metal.

"Tanya Mai, do you think I would not care if I came here? I came because I am worried about you and for you." Damon cupped her wet cheeks. "And killing yourself is not the answer to everything."

"Please, Damon. Don't lie to me." She tried to pry his fingers off her face.

"I'm not fibbing, my sister. I really care about you."

"How come you never did this before?"

"Because I was human. My emotions were too hard to control. But I now realize that I missed you while you and I were apart." Placing her cheek on his shoulder, he wrapped her in his arms. She was shaking so badly... "I just want you to be happy, Tanya Mai. For one minute of your life, I want you to be happy."

"There's no such thing as 'Happy' in my world." Her face had gone blank and staring, like she had died standing up.

"Tanya Mai. You need to go talk to Zane. He can help you."

"He would never understand. I can't tell him I am a vampire. He would hate me after that for lying to him all these years."

_Jesus Christ! She's delusional!_ he thought a bit harshly. But his vocals were gentler. "Zane would understand. He's your best friend."

"But I drove him away. I have no one left."

Damon had had enough. His sister was drowning in depression when it was plain she needed a shoulder to lean on. But she wasn't letting anyone help her. Damon would have done anything and everything he could to get her to open up to someone. Maybe him or that human Zane.

Damon pulled Tanya Mai into his arms, scooped her up, and dashed into the dorm rooms with no one looking, walking to the last door on the hallway to the left; he vaguely remembered Zane stayed here.

"Damon...I can't tell him."

"Then at least let him treat you well and coddle you for a few hours." He softly knocked on the door. A few moments later Zane appeared, eyes widening a little.

"Is she okay?" Zane asked Damon, remembering him from the hotel.

"No; she needs someone to hold her and take care of her for a while. And she needs a nap." Damon set Tanya Mai on her feet. Tanya Mai looked at Zane helplessly, and started to cry again.

"Oh, Tanya. Don't cry. It's okay. Come here; come here." _For a human, his voice is soft and sweet; it's what she needs right now anyway,_ Damon thought, watching his sister writhe in pain in Zane's arms. Zane mouthed _Thank you, Damon_ and dragged Tanya Mai into his room, shutting the door.

Damon didn't smile or nod; he just watched a human take his sister into warm arms and gentle smiles. He couldn't do it ever if he tried. He didn't know how to comfort one who was broken in pieces. He only knew how to comfort his own feelings.

Damon left his sister alone, wondering when he will be able to see her again.

* * *

~"Elena, I'm so glad you're back!" Stefan was gushing, throwing his arms around her. Elena had become herself again, talking and acting like being in the spirit world hadn't even affected her. Except she was part angel now...

Elena was getting ready to have a picnic with her friends, and Elena was in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and hair, smearing on clear lip gloss and tucking in her borrowed light blue top.

"Stefan, that is the third time I had heard that, now can I brush my teeth please?" Elena said, smiling. Stefan blushed, and went back to buttoning up his white polo shirt. "And anyway, you can have me later when I talk to my friends and Matt."

"Fine. But the wait will be painful," he teased, lightly kissing her rose bud mouth.

"Actually, Stefan," she said. Stefan turned around, frowning. "I think I know why I thought Tanya was my friend when I was acting like a child."

"Really?" he said.

Elena turned to him. "I never admitted it, but I had secret feelings for Tanya. I used to think she was so strong and never let anyone get in her way. And...I was very envious of her. I loved her beauty and face."

"But she's not as beautiful as you, lovely love," Stefan said, rubbing her back.

"And another thing," Elena said, as if she hadn't heard him. "I saw her aura. It's all black, with flashes of orange and yellow. Her aura is tainted with misery, depression and anger. She's upset, Stefan. I read her thoughts when she was trying to kill me. She's the way she is because you and Damon treated her so badly back in Florence. And because of Katherine. That's why she hates me. I know why she is the way she is now." Elena became excited. "Tanya was mistreated by her father and you and Damon. Her only friend was a handmaid, Martyl. Katherine was jealous because of Tanya's beauty and money."

"Elena, I don't understand. Tanya Mai was only upset because of Katherine."

"But you're not listening Stefan," Elena protested, spinning around to look at him. "You and Damon never paid any attention to her. Why do you think she thinks so negatively about you and Damon and me?"

"But why would she hate you? You look like Katherine, but you don't act like her."

"But Tanya doesn't know that. She hates me because she believes I act like Katherine. So she's scared to know me due to the fact that I could act like Katherine."

Stefan was scratching his head. "So...she hates you because of Katherine. But I don't remember ever being mean to her."

"You don't remember exactly." Elena was pacing again. "Katherine wiped your memory, like she wanted you to forget your own sister. And Katherine did the same with Damon. Katherine was jealous of Tanya because of Tanya's beauty and money. So she wanted to make Tanya's life and eternal life miserable."

"Elena, how did you conclude this?"

"Like I said, I read her memory. And things just clicked together after that." Elena became a bit calmer, and plopped down onto the bed. "But I thought she was my friend because my old feelings for her were intensified when came back."

Stefan's face showed understanding. "I get it now," he said, sitting next to her. "But could her anger really overwhelm her?"

"Tanya has been known to be a shadow since she changed into a vampire. She has been living with her misery for nearly half a millennium. How do you think she would feel? The least we could do is explain things to her."

"Elena, she tried to kill you last time," Stefan said hastily. No way was he going to risk her life again. He vowed he would keep his sister away from Elena at all costs.

"But I have you and Damon to protect me. And Meredith and Bonnie and Matt, too." She leaned a head against his shoulder. "And she's too depressed to even think about attacking me right now. Besides, you know where she works, right?" Stefan nodded. "Then we can plan to confront her when we get the chance. Like maybe after we talk to Bonnie and the others."

It took Stefan a lot of courage to keep his face away from Elena's. She was using her beautiful face to beg him. But he always said he would keep his sister safe from his maniac for a sister...

"Alright, but you have to promise me that if she comes after you one more time, I am going to have to get rid of her," he reluctantly said.

"You...you're not going to killing her, are you?" Elena asked, horrified.

"If I have to, I will. I just want to put her out of her misery."


	40. Chapter 40

~"Zane, I don't want to go to the party. There's no need for me to go to this party," Wrench complained.

Wrench was mortified. Zane had requested she go to the dress party with Dan and the boys since it was hosted by a retired member of Dan's Auto N Repair Shop, Gerald McGee. Gerald was an old friend of the shop, only seventy eight years old, and had retired happily with three grown-up kids and a wfie. Gerald used to love parties, but since his medical condition, a serious cancer that can come by and take him away at any day, had taken over, he was used to being lazy and a couch potato. But he had requested that Wrench and Bolt, or Zane, would go fix his car the old fashioned way, and that's how Gerald met Wrench. Gerald was very fond of Zane and Wrench, and he loved how a girl was working at the shop. And he demanded they go to this party.

It had been a whole week since the run in with Elena and Stefan and Damon. But Wrench was still moping about, so Zane literally pinned her up to a wall and pointed a finger, saying she was going whether she wanted to or not.

She was tottering and complaining as Zane flipped a manila folder shut and began to walk away.

"Sorry, Tanya. But you're going," Zane said, sighing.

"But I'm in no mood to go out. I hate social events like parties. Please don't make me do this. Please," she begged, close to tears. She dared not to go out, not when Elena and her brothers might be there.

"I don't care, Tanya. Buy a dress, if you don't have one, because it's tonight. And I will be happy to escort you, but you're going." He gave her a gentle touch on the cheek, but his look was stern as he disappeared up the stairs.

She already had a dress; she had found it in an expensive dress store two years ago, but she never found the time or opportunity to wear it. But she regretted it now.

She stayed in her room the rest of the day, staring at the dress laid out on the bed with cosmetics waiting in the bathroom and the high heels on the floor, a small tiara and jewelery on the bedside table.

Wrench didn't know if she wanted to go or not; she had been numb since the fight with Klaus. But there was no way she could abandon Zane or Gerald. The reason Gerald threw this party was because he wanted to make sure he had his last party formal and fancy before he passed on. Parties were something of a bad memory.

Lady Vondeau, an adviser's wife of the Queen of England, had come to take her away to a University where she could learn in the fields of art. Lady Mary Ellen Vondeau had thrown a party for Wrench, but not even her father or any of the guests had shown interest for Wrench. Ever since, Wrench regretted ever going to another party.

But Zane was as stubborn as hell when he wanted his way. And going to the party seemed like a life-long dream to him if she didn't go. So she sighed deeply, waited until the right time to get ready had come, and began her ritual of dressing up.

When she appeared out the door when Zane knocked, Zane's eyes became huge and his jaw dropped.

Wrench was wearing a simple dress in red silk with under wire, making the skirts circle out; it had no sleeves or straps. Over a section of the red skirt, black, silky film flowed outward, black roses sewn into a few areas. More black lace covered the torso piece, more black roses delicately stretching across the breasts and stomach. She had fingerless but elegant gloves that covered her skin up to the mid fore-arm. Her shoes were close to the model's of a designer's, four inch heels with little black ruffles along the front of the shoe. A classic tiara hung across her forehead, her hair falling in curls down her back, a small ponytail held back with a band with a black rose. Her only make-up was dark red eye-shadow and black eye-liner that made her eyes pop.

Zane was staring, scanning her entire attire, from her open toe shoes to her gorgeous tiara across her head.

"Good God, woman," he finally said at last. "You look so...so..."

"Average?" Wrench suggested. Her face wasn't very happy.

"Absolutely beautiful," he said, as if her negative suggestion was nothing but wind.

She noticed his eyes. Even though they were focused on her dress, they were sparkling slightly. Was he hiding something that she needed to know? Wrench also noticed his own attire. A simply black blazer slung over one shoulder, a white polo shirt buttoned up all the way, and black slacks and shoes. His hair was loose and shiny, grey eyes big and full of excitement.

Like an eighteenth century gentleman, Zane, the dirtiest and hoodiest boy in the shop, held out an arm like a true gentleman. "Are you ready to go, my lady?" he teased with a grin playing with his lips.

Wrench blushed, and shyly took his arm. "No; but I'll live."

Dan had ordered limousines for the shop, and Zane helped Wrench into the long machine before taking off. The long car zipped through town, pass lit up houses since it was night out. _My favorite time of day,_ she thought sadly. She held onto Zane's hand, fingers linked with his.

"Tanya," Zane said. She turned to look at him. "I know...that this is sort of uncomfortable. But, seriously. You like a red and black angel. Very beautiful." He lifted her hand to kiss it.

"Thank you." She tried a tiny smile. "You don't look bad yourself." Zane grinned, showing those nice teeth seldom a bit yellow and crooked.

The party was being held in the same hotel the boys stayed in after the death of Johnny Blitz, and the memory made everyone shiver with misery. But the beautiful recreation room down stairs was re-organized with glass chandeliers, a band in the corner, food and drinks on long tables, and dancing bodies in the center of the room. The theme was obviously a creamy golden interior, which seemed to fit in with the beauty of the room.

Dan was chatting with Gerald and his wife Karen when Zane and Wrench walked in. Gerald, leaning against a cherrywood cane, smiled his old teeth at the two young adults. He wore a classic tuxedo, made for occasions like this, and his gray hair was pulled back to look nice. An old woman of about sixty years had on a creamy yellow dress, which looked like it would fit church of any other occasion except for a fancy party. Her earrings were small and golden, and the little hat on ehr head had pink and red flowers.

"Zane! Tanya! How nice of you two kids to come," Gerald was gushing, shaking hands with Zane. he "Oh, Good Lord, Zane. Getting even cuter with each minute, I see."

"Well, sir, when Dan makes you work, he makes you work _out_ as well as work on cars," Zane replied, shaking hands with Karen.

Gerald's gaze rested on Wrench, and his happy expression changed to shock. But it was a happy and surprised shock. "My, my. You look absolutely beautiful tonight, Tanya. And you look like you haven't aged a day," he said, kissing her hand.

Despite her numbness and miserable feelings, she tried to smile and blush at the compliment. "Thank you, sir. But your wife is looking better than me tonight, I am afraid."

"Oh, poppycock, child, you look more beautiful that me, I can promise you that," Karen said, walking up to join them.

"I told you, Tanya," Zane muttered, winking at Wrench. She rolled her eyes and flicked a hand at him.

Gerald was gesturing for a waiter to come with a platter balanced on his hand. Delicate glasses of champagne were passed around the group. Wrench gingerly sipped hers. She preferred a glass of whiskey or white wine, but champagne was good enough. And the taste was expensive when the bubbly liquid touched her tongue.

"So, Miss Salvatore, are you and Borington dating nowadays?" Gerald asked casually.

Wrench's eyes went huge, and Zane nearly choked on his champagne. "Oh, no, sir! No, no. We're just friends. Well, actually, best friends. But we're not dating, sir." However his denial, Zane was blushing a bright red, and his eyes avoided looking at Wrench. Wrench watched him skeptically for a minute, but then let the subject subside and listened to Gerald's story about how his daughter June was born.

But after a while, Wrench drifted off from the group, feeling slightly odd since she had three glasses of champagne. She moved to the sidelines of the room, sitting with her skirts flowing out as she seated herself, watching the world go by peacefully.

The place was a whir of color. Girls were styled with long flowing gowns and small tiaras on their heads, high heels clicking against the polished wooden floor. The dashing men in tails were handsome in white shirts and black blazers, classic black shoes glistening underneath the chandelier light.

But two bodies caught her immediate attention. There, in a shockingly handsome coat and white sweater and black slacks, stood her older brother Damon. And the other one was Bonnie in a small green gown and silver kitten heels, wearing an emerald tiara. They looked like a perfect couple made for Hollywood. They looked so beautiful together, Wrench looked away, embarrassed at her simple red and black gown with an iron tiara and four inch heels.

"Tanya Mai?" Damon's voice was closer than she thought, so she dared to look up. And or course, he was looking at her casually, though he looked a little surprised. As did Bonnie that was clinging to his arm like she never wanted to let go. "Dear God, what happened to the scrubby, little rebel we know?"

"Oh, _partirmi il fratello solo, grande,_" she spit, but her heart was bleeding with pain. "Go have fun with Miss Follow the Ice Princess Everywhere here." She savagely pointed at an innocent looking Bonnie. So much for having fun at this God damned party.

"Why must you hurt me so? I only wanted to be your friend," he said, grinning like a devilish Cheshire cat. "Don't you want to dance, _Il mio gioiello prezioso di una sorella?_"

"I don't dance, _fratello grande._ You know that," she said, and, with a defeated head held up like she was too good for him, began to walk away. but he gently caught her arm.

"I just wanted to say hello, and that you look absolutely gorgeous tonight," he said, kissing her hand like he once did in Florence when Katherine denied him a dance at Wrench's going away party before she departed to Great Britain for a future in artistry.

Then, just when it was getting bad, it got so bad, Wrench's face fell and her eyes started to brim with tears.

Her other brother, Stefan, was standing a ways away, and he had his arm laced with a beautiful golden angel beside him. That same angel was dressed in a dark blue dress made of fine silk, her hair in a soft braid. Stefan was wearing the same exact blazer and white sweater he wore to the Home Coming Dance at Robert E Lee High School, only he didn't look so pained. He looked so happy, like he was on Cloud Nine.

The angel was Elena Gilbert, and Elena's eyes were searching for something.

Tears spilled over Wrench's cheeks, and her breath was clogged in her throat. Elena, the Ice Princess of Fell's Church, was as beautiful as heaven itself. Wrench would never forget nearly killing the blond bitch, but she had yelled at her brothers for no apparent reason since Elena and Stefan began walking towards her and Damon.

With the numbness now flooding her body, she turned her back to them and walked away straight for the two double doors leading to the lobby upstairs.

But an arm caught her in mid stride.


	41. Chapter 41

~Zane's heavenly voice filled her right ear. But she was dying to get away from the party.

"Tanya, don't go. What's wrong?" he was saying.

Her top blew it. Filled with an incoherent feeling of grief, she spun around and stared at his sweet face. "Zane, I can't stay here, alright?" She blurted out the truth before her mind told her not to. "I lied. I have two brothers who have issues with knowing I exist; in other words, they ignore me and treat me like shit. They used to be in love with a girl Katherine, and Katherine loved them, but she really wanted them for her own selfish reasons. And now my younger brother, Stefan, has found a girl that looks and acts like Katherine and he's in love with her all over again. And my older brother, Damon, wants me to help get her back and Damon now thinks I will love him because he is now paying attention to me."

Zane was just standing there, looking calm and cool, but obviously worried about her. Wrench's face was coated in tears. "Well?! Aren't you going to tell me I am an awful friend and never want to talk to me again?" she shouted, but not loud enough to catch too much attention. Dan and Gerald was watching nearby, as well as Bonnie and Damon.

"No; because I would be a jerk if I did you. But why didn't you tell me in the first place?" he asked calmly, touching her arm.

She liked the feeling of his fingers across her skin. They were like feathers, and so warm. And they were soothing and comforting. "Because," she said, dabbing at her eyes with the handkerchief Zane offered her. "I didn't want to talk about them. They're jerks to me, Zane. It's hard to say I want to be around them. Even their faces are scary to think about. And now that Stefan has Elena, he can just go take his angelic bitch and go..."

"Wait...Elena? Like Elena Gilbert?" he interrupted. Zane saw the blank look on her face as she nodded. "I knew her parents. They always thought that when Elena was grown up, she and I would be friends. But I never liked her, actually. Too snobby and stuck up if you ask me." He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Wrench's tears stopped. As did her breathing. Did he just say he didn't like Elena Gilbert? "But," Wrench stuttered, bewildered. "She's the most beautiful girl in the country. She's the queen of the town, the story everyone talks about. Everything."

"There is no such thing as 'One person being so perfect.'" Zane leaned in closer to whisper. "Elena isn't beautiful; she's too beautiful for me, too much popularity and too much royalty. Besides, I'm not attracted to blonds; I'm attracted to black heads." Wrench flushed. "Anyway, Elena Gilbert is the one person I can't stand. Other than Tanner of course..."

Wrench couldn't believe her ears. All these years, Zane knew Elena and hated her as much as Wrench did.

Something in her chest healed itself. For months, she felt like she was the only one who thought Elena was too selfish and rude and too good for heaven. Just to hear Zane say he didn't like Elena made her feel a whole deal better. Well, it didn't heal her completely, but she never felt so much happier before.

She stepped forward and hugged him. He didn't ask questions; he just wrapped his arms around her and squeezed lightly. "Please don't go; at least stay for two slow dances. please; for me," he begged, rubbing her shoulders.

Feeling a good deal better, she smiled a bit and nodded. He grinned back, and led her to the circle of people on the floor.

"Do you even know how to dance?" she asked as Zane took her hands and placed her feet on his toes. Her flesh burned where his other hand grasped her waist. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Never let your mother make you take waltzing lessons," he said, a bit abashed.

Wrench, for the first times in centuries let off a soft laugh. "Too late, only it was my dad that made me take the lessons."

Zane cocked his head a bit to the side. "I like your laugh; it reminds me of heaven's most beautiful silver bells," he whispered as they started to whirl with-what the fuck?!-Damon and Bonnie and Stefan and Elena. No one else was dancing with them; they all watched from the sidelines.

Wrench took a closer look at Zane. Her eyes were level with his chin; that chin was perfectly square and shaved to perfection; his aftershave washed her face and filled her nose with the musky scent. Those lips...not the least bit thin. His lips were slightly thicker than most guys; dark, sensual lips, perfect for kissing. And those eyes...those grey, foggy, soft eyes when you looked at them straight on...Good God,

"Where did you get the dress?" he asked, and she noted how Zane's eyes were watching the shinners of her dress bounce off the wooden floor as the lights caught the roses on her gown. Even his voice was so nice and comforting.

She shrugged. "Just a random dress that was on sale off the Internet." Zane twirled her in two small circles and dipped her lightly. She was impressed. "Looks like the waltzing lessons paid off."

Zane flushed, but chuckled. "It's because my class was filled with girls. I was the only male student. The sad part was, I was the top student. I excelled over all the other girls."

"Then your teacher taught you well." Zane spun her again, then lifted her in another twirl.

"I think the teacher had a crush on me; that's why I passed. I used to be so bad at movement, but she thought I was the sexiest thing she had ever seen at age seventeen. So my mom took me out of the classes when I turned nineteen."

"And so two years of waltzing made your life easier?" she teased as he dipped her once more.

"Nah. At first it was embarrassing, then I realized I had to live with it." The song ended, and they both clapped for the band before Zane bowed formally to Wrench. She bowed back. "I will be back for more dancing, but I feel like I need another glass of champagne."

"Hey, too much drinking and I'll have to drive you home," she teased, hugging him.

He laughed, and walked off. She went off in another direction, feeling so much better all at once. Zane's presence was so comforting, and his voice was soft and lovable. As she grabbed a spare glass of champagne off a tray, she also noticed she might have a crush on Zane. But she hadn't known she had a crush on him until now.

Sipping her bubbly wine, Wrench walked around and smiled a little when people turned towards her and greeted her. She now realized how many people were actually staring at her because she looked...well, pretty. To be honest, people were saying she looked so beautiful in her red and black rose gown, with her heels and iron tiara.

Some random girl glimpsed her gown and gushed out all over her. "Oh my God!" the girl in a violet silk sheath with small heels. "Where did you get that dress? Are those heels designer's heels? Is that tiara a rare item from Europe? Can I wear the tiara when you don't want it? That mascara and eye-shadow make you eyes pop!" The girl kept spilling out compliment after compliment, and soon she got so overwhelmed by the girl that her date had to drag her away.

She drank the rest of the champagne, and grabbed her last intended glass off another tray, hoping to drink away more of her grief, then she spotted Elena talking with Dan and Zane and her anger bubbled up. But she ignored the blond girl in her dark blue dress that matched her eyes exactly, and walked away in the other direction.

She was truly shocked when so many people were recognizing her outift, and even her curls.

"Having fun, Tanya Mai?" Damon once said as he approached her, smiling.

Wrench turned around, stuck her nose up in the air, and stalked off in a huff. But Damon, once again, grasped hold of her arm. But he was angry and full of Power when she whirled to look at him. His face was twisted with fury. "Don't you dare treat me like I'm nothing. I want you to talk to me right now, _E non gira da me di nuovo o altro!"_

"Or else what, Damon?!" she yelled. The whole recreation room was still and silent; even the band had stopped playing the light jazz music. Dan, Zane, Elena, Stefan, and Bonnie were watching nearby, shocked at Wrench's reaction. Neither vampire cared.

"Or I will do things to you that you will regret, like making you remember Katherine!" he shouted back. "I have been nothing but nice to you, and this is how you treat me?! I gave you love and comfort when you needed it, and now you treat me like _merda!"_

"_You_ left me when I needed it most! I walked home with a broken ankle, and I came down with a fever! I never get sick, and yet, you left Dan and his boys to coddle me when it was _your_ duty to do that, not theirs!"

"Then why didn't you tell me in the first place other than mope around and moan about how depressed and how you loathed everyone around you?!"

"I have a good reason to loathe you and Stefan! Neither of you treated me like family when we were young! You were too busy with yourselves and Katherine! You _never _cared about anyone but _yourself_! I was left for dead; my nanny kept me company while you were too busy flaunting with women and quiting university after university. Stefan has to much of a love life to notice anyone else, and Dear Old Daddy was too _stupid_ to even think about my needs and wants!"

Damon's face was red with anger. "How dare you talk to your older brother like that!"

"From what I hear, you can't even speak your own thoughts, _lei i malati, il figlio egoistico di una femmina!_ Now stay away from me, or I will _kill_ you so slowly you'll beg me to burn you!"

And with those words said, she walked off, all the while pushing Stefan into someone behind him when she breezed past, and smacking Elena across the face, too.

Wrench was running now, back to the shop, tears rolling down her face. He had done it; Damon had blown her whistle. She was finished. She was going to get out of town, and go back to Moscow in Russia or even Paris, France. Or even Berlin, Germany. She would steal some of the shop's money, buy a ticket to Russia, and start from there.

She got back to the shop, ripping out her tiara and unstrapping her heels, going up the stairs two at a time, bare footed. Her mind was set; her plans were made.

She was going to leave Fell's Church tonight. And this time, she was never going to see her brothers again.


	42. Chapter 42

~Wrench's party gown and shoes were on the floor, completely forgotten. She packed her things in her underwear and bra, not caring that the window was open with the curtains flapping around in the wind. She was eyeing the big SUV in the back parking lot, planning to grab the keys and take off in that to New York City Airport and then take a plane to Moscow and live there for as long as she was a vampire.

Her feelings were swirling up inside her like a whirlpool, mostly anger and desperation and depression. All her wounds inside her soul were bleeding like they never bled before, and her tears were like bee stings on her cheeks.

She had felt like this when she found out she was a vampire. She had woken up in a tomb next to her brothers. Her brothers were still changing into vampires, so she was the one who woke up first. She escaped the tomb, ran back to her house at night, fed on six horses to keep her blood going until she needed human blood, and dressed like a man, stealing all her father's money and stealing a horse to help her to Spain where a ship was taking off to the New World. She never even looked back. The last thing she saw of her brother's were their dead faces before they would awaken as vampires.

Wrench yanked on a pair of dark jeans and her black hoodie Damon once tore when he found out her identity. Her black biker boots were tied up all the way, and she began to pack her bathroom toiletries.

She thought about how she was going to make a living. She didn't know if there was a mechanic's shop in Russia. Last time she was there, Russia was becoming a Communist Country under Lenin during the Russian Revolution. They had barely made it through industrializing, but they were trying to. So has Russia become industrialized?

Then another thought raced through her head. What would happen to Zane? She was in love with him. She thought he was the best thing she had ever known since she was hired for the job at Dan's Auto N Repair Shop. Wrench loved her job and the people there. But could she really leave her job just to get away from her brothers and Elena Gilbert?

While Wrench was stuffing her toothbrush and hairbrush into her duffle bag, a car's engine pulled into the parking lot behing the shop's dorms. She stuck her head out the window and recognized Dan's big dark green Ram, headlights still on. A black figure jumped out of the driver's side and ran for the door leading into the dorms. Dammit. Zane had followed her.

Wrench's heart was burning with a desire to not leave him, but her heart was too heavy with grief. So when she heard his feet thundering on the steps, she ran to her door, locked it, and resumed packing.

Three big bangs sounded on her door. Zane's voice was desperate and loud, and she could swear she heard his voice on the verge of weeping. "Tanya! Open this door, please!" The big doorknob was jiggling violently. She could tell Zane would have done anything to get in the door right now.

Wrench threw the rest of the contents in her bags as Zane continued to yell. "Tanya, please open this door! Tanya, I know your upset, but please talk to me!" She could hear tears in his tone. It took a lot to make Zane cry. But these days, crying was something he did on a regular basis.

"No one cares! I am not talking about anything!" she screamed at him, her own tears staining her eyes.

"Tanya, I care very much. Please come out and talk to me. I'll do anything you want, but please. Just let me hear your troubles. Just please talk to me." Zane was trying to be convincing, but she didn't even hear him anymore.

All her bags were packed, leaving her dresser, mattress, and bed frame, but she couldn't go out the door because Zane would tackle her and force her to talk. Talking hurt. It hurt more than feeling itself. She would never talk about her feelings, even to the one person she trusted more than herself.

"Tanya, I beg you, open the door, please!" Zane kept on going, banging at the door.

She made up her mind. She didn't want to leave without seeing his face one more time, so she burst open her door and stormed out, bags in hand. She glimpsed Zane's tear-stained face before she jogged down the stairs for her escape. Zane went after her, his voice croaked and begging,

"Tanya, please don't leave me!" he shouted at her. He grabbed her arms and shook her, and tried to hug her to him.

"I don't want to, but I have to!" she yelled back, forcefully pushing him away.

"TANYA MAI, STOP AND TALK TO ME!" His voice was drained out as she got outside. It was now raining very hard, and her ears were ringing as she jammed the keys into the ignition of the SUV she intended to take off in to New York.

Zane forced open her door, and dragged her out of the cab. She pushed at him, but he held her tightly to him. "GODDAMMIT, WOMAN! JUST TALK TO ME FOR ONCE!" he screamed at her, shaking her hard enough to make her head wobble to and fro. She shoved at him again, but he gripped her so hard her arms were stinging.

"I CAN'T! YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND OR BELIEVE ME!" she wailed, trying desperately to get into her stolen car and drive off, away from her best friend's tear-tainted face. Zane had never cried so hard before, except for maybe when Conner died.

"YES I WOULD!" The rain was coming down so hard they could barely hear each other, hence the reason they were yelling at each other. Zane was able to yank her out of the car's driver seat and haul her out into the pouring rain.

Zane's restricting arms and pleading voice finally made her do the one thing she had done to the people she hated, but never in her immortal life had she ever done it to someone she loved.

She slapped him.

It was a hard slap, across the cheek that scratched his cheekbone. It knocked his head to the side, and Zane's gasp of shock and pain speared her soul. Zane's expression was beyond shocked, and he looked hurt. Like his most trusted friend just betrayed him. She gasped herself, knowing he was now going to hate her, and she feel to her knees, wailing and screaming for God to take her away from the pain stabbing at her heart.

The last living piece of her heart fell away. Zane's place in her heart was in shattered glass pieces on the ground around her.

Both of them were vulnerable at that one moment, Zane was so broken and confused, Wrench hurting from the inside out.

But, being broken with confusion or not, he knelt next to her, bent over he body from the penetrating rain, slung his blazer off his shoulders, and placed on Wrench's twitching spine. Her breathing caught on a choking sob, then felt drool running down her chin from her mouth wide open from her agonizing screams.

"Tanya, oh Tanya..." Zane's soft voice was speaking French, the language of his fathers. He bent over, gathered her up like a slippery person with no spine, and cradled her delicate head on his shoulder. His long black hair kept the rain from falling on her head and cheeks, shielding his own face, quietly speaking his language.

Wrench cried and cried, gripping his shirt's front with such a strength she didn't dare let go. Zane held her just as tightly, arms keeping her safe and warm in his arms.

"C'mon, Tanya. Let's get you out of this damned rain," he whispered gently, swinging her up in his arms.

She tried one last time to push him away. "No...I have to leave now. I...don't want to be here anymore. Please," she pleaded, wriggling. But Zane kept her still and retrieved her bags from the SUV, hastily jogging up the stairs with his heavy burden and arms full of duffel bags. Her sobs never ceased.

* * *

~"Drink this, it'll make you feel better," Zane said, proffering Tanya a cup of chicken broth. She gingerly took it from him over the four blankets wrapped around her shoulders. While sipping it, Wrecnh watched Zane placed her wet laundry in a hamper in the corner and placed the plastic cover over her discarded dress.

"You don't have to take care of me anymore, you know," she said over her mug of chicken broth. Zane had been watching her and taking care of her like a mother, and she was scolding him over and over again to rest and go back to the party and have fun. But he stayed, making sure she didn't try to escape again, told her to take a nice long shower while he cleaned up and placed her clothes back where they belonged, and wrapped her up in blankets so she wouldn't get a chill again.

Zane sat next to her. "You can't stop me from doing something I want to do," he said with a soft smile and an arm around her shoulders. She ducked her head into his side, and sniffed his T-shirt. It smelled like him a whole lot, and she closed her eyes, imagining him without that T-shirt. All those muscles...she ached to kiss him once.

Another new shock she didn't know about herself. She never knew she ahd the strangest desire to kiss him. His lips were nice and soft, like that shoulder-length dark hair of his.

Instinctively, Wrench's fingers reached up to touch his lips. Zane went still, but his shock and was covered with something more than just a crush. Those smoky eyes burned inside her, searching her black soul and bleeding heart. All at once, when Zane's hand cupped her cheek lightly as though her face would break under his touch, Wrench felt his invisible eyes heal every tear in her heart.

Some light in her soul appeared then, when Zane's face was closer to hers than it was two minutes ago. Her black, charred, broken, burned soul...was alight, with something in her five hundred years of existence she had never even experienced. A simple corner, darker than Hell itself, where a small light appeared and glowed warmer than the sun on a spring day in California. The light was getting warmer and brighter now, just as Zane's face was leaning closer and nearer.

Wrench's body was as if it was on automatic. Both shaky hands clasped themselves in his hair, eyes watching every muscle twitch underneath his face. The blankets around her body were forgotten and had fallen off her shoulders, pooling at her waist. Zane's hands gripped her face tenderly, licking his dry lips nervously but eagerly.

She knew he felt it, too. That glowing light was getting so warm now it was almost hot. Zane's breath was sweet and hot across her cheeks and nose. With her eyes closed, she waited with her lips pursed and slightly parted.

The dark corner in her soul was so bright it was blinding, and the light was hot and bright. It was like a barrier to the outside world; nothing could interrupt this moment. Nothing.

Zane's soft mouth landed on hers with soft pressure, but the heat of his lips was hard and blistering.

She never felt so happy in all her life since her mother died.


	43. Chapter 43

~Zane's mouth met Wrench's.

The kiss was something more than just simple lip-pressing. Both of them felt shudders go up their backs with passion, and Zane's hands on Wrench's face were warm and comforting. Her fingers interlocked together behind his neck, pressing herself to him, feeling so much more content than she had for a long time.

Tears that were warm and happy fell down Wrench's cheeks. Something inside her blackened soul healed completely, the agonizing pain dissipated, and she was home, here in Zane's arms.

Wrench could feel Zane pull back a bit, watching her eyes become heavy. Her body was not numb anymore; she could feel every little thing that brushed her skin. For the first time, she could feel. She could see Zane's eyes, that fogginess filled with love and want, as much as she wanted him.

"I love you, you know. I always have," he whispered, but it was a loud sound when the room was so silent while they kissed. His thumb stopped the tears from coming, but she cried softly as she bumped his chin for another kiss. He obeyed without hesitation, kissing her deeper.

Wrench's body was shaking, and the little light in the dark corner of her soul was like an inferno, sweeping away all her worries, discomforts, the thoughts of her brothers, the feeling of lonliness...it all disappeared under a new emotion. Love.

As they kissed, Wrench's hands stayed tangled in his silky hair, and more tears escaped. Only Martyl, her hand-maid back in Florence, made her feel so special. She never knew a guy could do that as well, Even this human...this _man_ that had been her best friend since six years ago when she started working at the shop.

Suddenly, the thought of Martyl made Wrench gently yank back from the kiss. "Wait, Zane," she breathed. They had been kissing real hard, both immortal and mortal were out of breath. "There's something I need to tell you. Something I don't know if you'll believe or not. I want to trust you with it."

Zane kept an arm around her, but pulled back and nodded. "I'll listen, I promise," he swore, looking straight at her.

_Best to get it out of my hair and not lie to him anymore_, she thought wryly to herself. She took a deep breath, readying herself for telling her one secret she kept from all others except Elena's friends. "I'm a vampire, Zane," she got out immediately. Wrench's guts were shaking with nervousness as she told Zane everything. His eyes were wide with shock at first, but he kept his promise and listened intently as she continued on and on.

But, as her speech went on, her eyes got wet again. And her face fell. Zane pulled her into his lap again, rocking her.

"And so now," she said through the fabirc of his shirt. "I have lived for five hundred years in misery until I started working at this shop. I just wish I could have died in Florence at old age, but Katherine wanted to make my life even more miserable and change me."

"But why did she hate you in the first place?" Zane asked as though it was something they talked about all the time. Wrench was quite surprised that Zane was so calm and cool with everything she was telling him.

"My nanny Martyl thought it was because I inheritted all my mother's stuff and nearly all the Salvatore family's money, so that made me beautiful and rich all the same. But I wasn't convinced at all. I just thought Katherine hated every single girl that hung around my brothers. But I just couldn't be sure."

Zane ducked her head underneath his arm, snuggling her close, laying her head against his breast. Wrench heard Zane's steady heart beat under her ear, thumping steadily and slowly.

"Can you hear my heart beating better than a humans?" he asked softly, guessing her thoughts exactly.

"I can hear everything much better than a hamun's. All vampire senses are intensified when we changed into a vampire, like our sense of smell and even sight. My pupils are very small, smaller than a humans. See?" Wrench strecched her lower eye lid downward, and Zane peered closer to watch the small pupil of her eye shrink smaller and smaller. "I can even smell the different scents of your shampoo and skin."

Zane beamed. "So...what do I smell like?" he asked teasingly. She smiled, and sniffed his shirt and the skin on his arm.

"I can smell...Degree body wash...the musky scent of the forest..and something else I can't put my finger on," she said truthfully, although the other unidentified scent was Zane's natural human scent, which made her head swirl with images of pleasure and kissing.

Zane chuckled. "Wow. It's a wonder of what vampires can do," he said.

"But other times it can be a pain in the ass, really."

Zane frowned. "How?"

"Well, think about," she explained as he rubbed her arm. "If my senses are intensified, then your emotion you felt in your human life is intensified. My depression and misery wasn't this strong when I was a human. It was bad, but not bad enough to think about suicide. In seventeen forty-two, I was all alone, hurting from lack of blood and strength, and my first thought was to commit suicide. But I am a Christian, I believe in God myself. And committing suicide is something against God. God gave you life to breathe and to live and to love. But, as you well noticed, I barely have any of those things." She gestured around her room. "All of this is...this manly stuff; this wasn't me when I was human.

"Back in Florence during the Renaissance time, I was the ultimate lady. I went through six tutors when it came to etiquette, andI had so many tutors because I was planning on being a famous painter, but I still learned to cook, to rule the servants, to do gentle arts, to ride horses like a lady did. Being a lady wth obedience meant that the lady will be a respectful young girl, ready to marry a man and always follow his rules.

"But when Katherine changed me, I started to realize that being a lady was something that didn't really fit me. I felt more...full of spirit and free than most girls at that time. I had a more closer interest with learning politics and going to a University than sit in a rocking chair and learn about how to knit and watch my kids. I felt like I could stand up to the lady-like world. So the same night that Katherine changed me I tore off my dress, slipped on some men's clothes, stole a horse and lots of money from my inherited bank, and rode all the way to Spain so I could take off to the New World, or America." Zane chuckled. "I have been learning about mechanical things for three hundred years. But, even as I was happy with being somethign I found that I loved, my depression and misery intensified, and I've been a loner until I met you and Conner and the rest of the boys, except Tanner, of course"

"Wow. I didn't know that worked with someone's feelings other than just their senses," Zane said, kissing her hair.

"Yeah, well; it was pretty surprising for me when I found out. And when was that...?" she teased, pretending to frown. Zane laughed lightly, and she joined in his laughter. Laughing was also another thing that she had never done before; she never had that little tickle in her stomach to laugh whenever something was funny. But all her emotions were now so new and bright, now that she had fallen for Zane. He made her feel so welcome and...not so...miserable. She felt good.

"I just kinda wish I was there for you in the first place when you were human," he whispered to her.

Wrench's happy smile kinda fell. "Hang on," she said, sitting back from there sitting positions; her head ducked underneath his arm, his fingers stroking her hair. "How can you be so cool with all this? I am a creature of the night, I feed on blood, and I go all vampire whenever I want. But me being a blood sucker doesn't scare you at all?"

Zane shrugged. "I don't really care. I trust you, and I always have. I'm not one of those idiots who has to be all freaked out by this and never talk to that person again. I care about you, Tanya. And your brothers are dickheads, don't forget that."

Wrench giggled. "That has always been my head since I was born into the world as a human, Zane. I thought my brother Damon had changed. But..." She sighed, and swallowed. The mood darkened when she spoke of her older shithead of a brother. "But I guess he will always be so selfish and stupid no matter how he feels about the people around him."

"Then don't let him get in your way. Just push him away," Zane suggested.

"Already tried. He still comes back like a dog. Stefan likes to follow me, too. Which is not the least bit thrilling to me."

"Then don't even think about them right now. Just focus on sleeping." He then stood up, and placed Wrench underneath the sheets, tucking the blankets up to her chin. She closed her eyes, letting Zane's warm hands tuck her in comfortably. She turned onto her side and began to fall asleep to his soft humming. _I never knew he liked to hum while doing things. That is somehow so cute..._ she thought absently.

"I feel like a vampire burrito," she whispered when he stuck the blankets between her ankles to keep her feet warm, giggling. His finger poked at her calves, and she snickered. _Why does that tickle?_ she asked herself.

"Something funny?" he said. Zane sat next to her head on the bed, fluffing the pillow behind her.

"No; hardly anything's funny to me. I think you just hit a tickle spot," she confessed. Though he rarely ever did, Zane was very good at reading faces, especially when someone was lying. Zane was so good at reading faces, he was able to read Wrench's blank, poker face a lot when they played poker or when she was lying to him. More than she could count did he read her face like a book.

"Oh, really? Like right here!" he said, and, so quick he was lightening, he yanked the blanket out of her feet, and tickled her calves and heels again. Wrench begged him to stop, but he just kept tickling her, holding her down by the shins with his knees, and tears of laughter ran down Wrench's cheeks before Zane stopped and landed next to her on the bed.

"Never do that again!" she snarled playfully at him, suddenly out of breath.

"Than don't tell me you're ticklish next time!" he retorted in defense. But he reached over and kissed her forehead, and sat up.

"I think I am going to crash," he said after gazing at her for a moment or two. He patted her hand, kissed her head again, and got up to leave.

"Zane? Can you do one more thing for me before you go?" she asked, sitting up. He stopped and turned to her.

"Of course, Tanya," he said.

"Can I have a glass of..."

"Blood? I don't think you like O negative, will you?" he teased, but apologized when she threw him a dark look.

"No. Just a glass of water for my dry throat. Sometimes water is a substitute for blood when we can't find it."

"But I'm a bag o' blood right here," he said, but walked into the bathroom for a paper cup of water.

"I don't drink human blood like Damon, nor do I drink animal blood like Stefan. I have my own tofu diet," she replied, sitting up and taking the water from his hands.

"And so how do you survive on this so-called 'tofu diet?'" he asked.

"I blend a mix of raw beef, pork, chicken legs with no bones, lamb chops, and raw steak into a blender and drink it after heating it to ninty eight point six, which is about...four minutes. Very dry on taste, but very efficient when it comes to food for vampires. But each vampire feeds differently. I am just the tofu eater of my family, and Stefan is the vegatarian, and, as we all know Damon is the..." They both smiled and finished together.

"Blood-sucker!" they chorused, and laughed one more time. Then Zane leaned down to kiss her softly on the lips. This kiss was sweet and gentle, but it stitched a very tiny tear in her heart, and she felt happier than she was half an hour ago before she planned to leave there for good.

"Goodnight, Tanya," he whispered. "And...do you want to be like boyfriend and girlfr..."

"I will think about. Just go to bed."

And he left her with a partially healed heart.


	44. Chapter 44

~"Can you hand me that screw driver, Zane?" Wrench said, leaning over her project. The big car was an old Izusu Trooper with a beaten up engine and rusty old screws.

Zane, or Bolt, retreived the indicated screw driver and handed it over.

"How did you sleep last night?" he asked casually, leaning his elbow up against the car's rusty side.

She grinned in spite of herself. "For the first time in a very long time, I slept peacefully and gratefully, thanks to you," she answered without a clip to her words. Zane flashed his teeth and watched her hands work the engine.

She woke up feeling so new and refreshed. Her spirits were bright and glowing, her eyes not so dull and depression-looking anymore. The rubies in her eyes shined with joy, Zane had said when she kissed his cheek. That little bright light in her black soul was still glowing, warm and happy. She woke up, jumped into a shower, and flounced out of her dorm with a big smile on her face. She hugged every boy she saw, and slapped Zach on the back as he walked by. All of the boys were confused by her happiness, but welcomed it without questioning it out loud.

She had worked with double effort, finishing nearly three cars before any of the boys could say something; she finished even before twelve noon. She had the strength after feeding on four big glasses of mixed up meat from the spare fridge in the employee lounge.

"Need a pair of pliers?" Zane asked as she fumbled with the engine's meshed up metal.

"Yeah; a small pair, if you please," she asked politely, and he handed a pair over to her. Zane had been helping her repair pieces of metal after pieces of metal with no complaints and no whining all morning; he seemed to love her company.

"I've been meaning to ask you," he said when she took a short interval with her work. "What did you used to do on your free time back in the Renaissance?"

She sipped a small coffee mug filled with blended raw meat. She pondered for her memories, but Zane blushed. "Ohmygod, I forgot. You don't like to talk about..." He wanted to finish but she stopped him with a small grin.

"I used to study art and painting, ride horses, go out into town, played around with the servants, and learn to knit and cook and take care of small children," she replied, licking her lips of bloody meat. She grimaced at the taste even though she had been on vampire "tofu" for a while.

"Taste weird?" Zane guessed, gulping down water and splashing it on his sticky with sweat forehead.

"It actually tastes nasty, but I would rather drink this than eat humans and animals," she said.

"I never knew you ate tofu until now," Zane said.

"Neither did I ever thought it tastes awful until now, too."

There was a silence, but it was comfortable and warm. They both gazed each other, watching the other grin then burst out laughing.

"Hey, Zane. Why did you offer your blood to me? I don't know a single human that would do that to a vampire willingly," she said as she tightened her shirt and re-adjusted her name tag.

"Ah, well...um...I don't have an exact explanation, but I do know that you must be sorta weak from lack of nutrition, so I was just...you know..." he stammered, shrugging.

"Thinking about me?" she suggested. He nodded. "Well, I thank you dearly, Mr. Handsome, but I just can't take blood from any living thing. If you were dead, then I would drink your blood, but you're alive, and so your blood is yours and yours alone. And, your blood type is O negative?"

Zane chuckled, and said, "Yeah. Why, is that a good thing?" He smiled teasingly.

"Actually, O negative and virgin's blood are the two sweetest tasting blood there is. But it was what I heard. I can't make a statement unless I taste human blood." She drank more of her tofu and set back to work. She lay down on the scooting bench, and rolled underneath the car's engine, yanking a piece of metal out of the fluid tank. Zane stood by, waiting for more instructions if said instructions were needed.

"Want to make a statement right now? I am a virgin, and I am O negative," Zane said, cackling. She kneed his thigh playfully.

"Then you would taste twice as sweet, almost like dessert wine at a restaurant. But that is just what I think, and stop offering your blood to me." Her eyes turned towards him, and she saw how his black head was turned to the far corner of the shop. "Zane? What is it?"

"I think someone is in that corner. I just saw a black figure," he whispered. Quietly and swiftly, Wrench crawled out from the under belly of the car, and stood, baring sharp teeth and hissing in warning.

But her defense broke down into anger when Damon appeared, beaming like a homeless who just won the lottery. "Is this day really happening? Have you found love after all?" he said, eyeing Zane with his midnight eyes.

"Get out, you bastard. I told you I will kill you if you ever stalked me again," she threatened.

Completely ignoring her, he stepped up to Zane, rubbing his chin in speculation. "I think he would be a good-looking young guy of he was a vampire. Ever thought about ch..."

He went flying into the far wall, his sister's teeth ripping into flesh. He growled and fought back, but her hand stayed pinned under his chin, choking the air out of him.

"Don't ever mention me changing him,_ ever_. Now. Get. Out," she hissed, squeezing his neck harder.

"All I wanted was..."

She threw him out the open garage door, watching him bare his teeth and snarl as he stumbled to his feet. "No one hurts me," he growled, mostly to himself.

"Then get out of here, or you will be a burned piece of charcoal if you don't." She punched him twice, gave a good shove with both hands, and Damon went flying towards the main house of the shop. He growled angrily, and flew off as a crow, croaking a warning at her. She spit at him. Damon flew away.

Wrench muttered something that sounded like a swear in Russian, and returned to the aw-struck Zane. Zane's eyes were huge and his mouth was agape, but he still leaned on the work bench, looking calm and patient.

"Wow; never knew you can kick ass, too," he commented as she shut the garage door, locking it. He wiped his hands of grime and dirt and rust.

"Yeah, well when you've been in the army for a time, it changes you as a person," she replied.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, rewind. Did you just say army? As in...guns and planes and submarines and all that shit?" he said, a bit more surprised than Wrench thought.

"Zane, how can it be a surprise? I am partly man. I act like a guy, talk like a guy, even smell like a guy." She shrugged. "And I was in the army for pure boredom. Like...World War One and World War Two anf the Russian Revolution. And, I was even there when Mussolini took over power and became a dictator in Italy."

Zane was shaking his head, beaming. "The things I don't know about you."

* * *

~A week later, Zane and Wrench ended up going to dinner in a place not even Damon or Elena would find them; and expensive Italian restaurant with gourmet food and great ratings. Of course Wrench didn't eat, but she treated Zane as he ploughed through a plate of Parmesan Fettucine Alfredo and a good white wine they both drank together. They weren't exactly _together_ together, but they were close enough to date and even be alone together without any one noticing.

"I can't believe you lugged my ass up that tree," Zane was gushing, chewing more creamy pasta. Wrench promised Zane she would show him her ability to be sneaky and army-like like she used to do, and she was able to throw Zane over her shoulder and accend the pine tree smoothly without losing grip like a soldier carrying a wounded comrade.

She tinkled a little laugh. "That is nothing. I once took twenty machine gun bullets to the chest, and I still lived," she added, sampling his pasta. _Not as good as Martyl used to make it,_ she decided.

"Well, of course you lived. You're immortal, or did you forget that all together?" he teased. She smacked his hand tenderly, but he caught it in mid air and held it tightly, watching the dim lighting cast a ghostly shadow across her pale skin. "Why are you so pale?"

"Because partially I'm dead," she said simply. "I don't have creamy skin like I used to. I only have skin of a zombie, really."

They both leaned back in their seats when a cute waitress came by and grabbed Zane's plate, and asked, in Italian, if he wanted dessert.

"What would you suggest, Tanya?" he asked, blushing a bit. Italian was not a language he would ever understand.

Tanya sighed, and ordered the "Chambord Panna Cotta" with raspberry sauce instead of strawberry.

"I don't know what the hell that is, but if it's cake, then I'm game," he stated happily, rubbing his hands together.

"It's a special Valentine's cake in Italy, but here they sell it year round. You can even buy the whole thing for a low price," she said. She loved Chambord Panna Cotta; raspberry was her favorite fruit, as was Zane's.

"I feel like we don't have much in common," Wrench said aloud, vocalizing her thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Zane asked curiously, a frown burrowing his thick but fine eyebrows.

The waitress came back then, and Zane realized Wrench ordered for two, as a plate was being placed in front of Wrench. "It just feels like we have nothing in common, what with me being immortal and you being a mortal."

"That still doesn't explain things to me," he mumbled. He bit into the cake and his eyes got big. "Great guts, that's delicious!"

She chuckled at his comment and continued. "I don't know how to explain it." She chewed some her home tradition food, all the while pondering her thoughts. "It feels like you and I have nothing in common just because I will live forever and you will die of old age. It just feels like there's too much distance between because of how our lives are lived.

"Are you suggesting that you change me?" he asked, eating more dessert.

Wrench panicked. Under any circumstance, she would never change Zane, even if it was to save his life. She would rather have him die of old age then fight a hunger and feed on other beings. "You know damn well I don't want to do that," she declared, shoving more cake into her face.

Zane was about to interject, but she cut him off with a flick of her wrist. "No matter what the circumstance is, no matter what happens, I will not change you. Never. But I think I have another way to solve my problem." Her eyes sparkled with love. And a spark of slight smugness flashed through her brown eyes.

His eyebrows raised, then he smiled drowsily. "You mean...?" She nodded. He leaned forward to whisper to her sexily. "I will be happy to, Miss Salvatore."


	45. Chapter 45

~"Are you sure you want to do this?" Zane asked for the fourth time, trembling when Wrench's hands floated over his bare chest. They had come back to the shop a little too quickly, but escaped into Zane's room while all the boys and Dan were sound asleep. Zane ripped open both of their shirts, tore off her bra and admired her bosoms before yanking Wrench down onto his light and feathery mattress. He seemed in the mood, but now he seemed so unsure of it.

Wrench groaned in frustration. "I told you before: I don't care. This is the only way I could think of," she said huskily, brushing a dusky kiss under his chin. Her fingers tore out his hair band.

"Wrench, both of us are new to this," he said drowsily. "Maybe we should plan it first." He sounded a bit worried, but his eyes were foggy with something she had never seen before when she was with Zane.

"It's not like I am going to reproduce," she mumbled. The scent of his skin made her insides burn with a small desire. Both engineers were bare chested, and that meant no bra for Wrench. She ran kisses across his face. "Why are you saying you don't want to all of a sudden?"

Zane placed a broad hand on her smooth back, breath caught on a choke when his fingers traced her long, soft back; his other hand gripped her hip. He pulled her close, but restricted her lips from gaining access to his mouth. "Because I've been thinking this past week. I kinda wanted to do this with you as well, but it's a bit too fast for me. And I don't exactly think you can keep yourself from biting me. Please don't be mad with me."

"Why would I be mad? And I am in total control," she said, finding his collar bone more suitable to kiss instead of his lips; her lips were like feathers on his skin. He gripped both of her hips now, rocking her forward. Wrench's skin was cool, but his body was warm, like summer and spring meshed together.

Zane nestled himself up so she straddled his legs, and he kissed her more intensly than before. Her tongue was eager and quick, licking his teeth and tasting his hot breath.

Zane was quivering with excitement now, rubbing her back like he couldn't get enough of her. His mouth rested above her cleavage, and Wrench gasped when his breath brushed down the valley of her breasts. Running her fingers through his long locks of night dark hair, she pressed her body closer until her bosoms were crushed with his collar bone.

A jolt of electricity shot up her back when his lips and hands took over her. All she could do was moan; it was pure ecstacy. She thought she would melt when his hands fiddled with the button and zipper on her jeans; she ran her fingers through the planes and dips and bumps of his arms, his chest, his stomach, and lower.

In her charred soul, another light was beginning to shine. It was a small red light for love, and it was pulsing like their hearts. Like a drum, it was a slow steady rhythm, but it started to pick up pace as soon as Zane and Wrench's hands were busy.

But something else was pushing it's way through in her brain. A distant feeling, somethign she had completely forgot in her last five hundred years. It was opening it's door and revealing itself. But Wrench fought to force it away, and also focus on Zane's lips across her neck. She gasped, feeling his teeth nip her skin behind her right ear gently.

But, that strange feeling was clouding her vision, and the litte red light in her soul was fading. _No!_ she told herself, tasting the flesh on Zane's chest, right above his pounding heart. _I will not lose this feeling. It feels so good and so blissful..._

Yet, as her face was glued to his neck, giving him a soft love bite with her lips beneath his jawbone, it happened.

The feeling overwhelmed her so fast and so strong she gasped, though Zane took that as a love gasp, and fondled her chest. Wrench fought as best as she could to keep the feeling away, but the red light she fought to keep alight was now snuffed out like a flame on a candle, anf the feeling in her mind was all too familiar now.

Hunger. Zane's blood was a virgin's and O negative; sweet and powerful.

Before she knew it, the feeling was an uncomfortable love, a sick love that kept telling her to bite him, to drink his eternal elixir and feel as powerful as Damon. It fogged up her vision and made her guts tingle. But everything was wrong to her. She hated that feeling whenever a guy with sweet smelling blood was around.

Wrench's mouth was licking and kissing Zane's long neck, nipping it. Zane's hands were pulling her jeans off, and a bit of black lacy panties appeared. His fingers rubbed her now bare hip above the jeans line, kissing and fondling her chest with his other warm hand.

Wrench's feeling was making her hands grasp his head, tilting it better for a nicer view of his neck. Making a wet swathe up his neck, she kissed the big vein pumping blood underneath her lips.

A small chamber in her mind was telling her she never had wanted this. Sure she wanted some sex someday, but never feel the ultimate urge to feed on a guy while they were _doing _it. Her insides were telling her to stay with him; to focus only on his face and warm hands. However, the strong urge to feed was commanding her weak mind to feed and drink and be as powerful as Damon when he fed on pretty girls. But she hated this feeling of urge; she never wanted to taste human blood in her life time. But a few other past occurrances porved her otherwise.

The feeling was numbing; it encased every pore in her body with sickly pleasure and the desire to drink the sweetest and strongest vampire elixir in the world. It was drowning her, sucking up all the breath and feeling out of her entire body.

Wrench's eyes were closed, wrapping one arm around his neck, the other tangled in his hair. Nuzzling his neck again, she let her fangs extract, lengthen and sharpen, then pierced Zane's neck. Hard.

Zane choked on a screech, but sighed and fell back onto the bed's pillows, palms holding her bare buttocks. Wrench's head was filled with what could happen if she didn't stop; so much love...so much sex...so much blood. She drank him slowly, gulping each ounce with care, but she as so hungry she sucked on more as she continued to fondle Zane between the hips. She growled and moaned with the warm blood running down her throat. Zane's prediction was right; virgins with O negative blood tasted like dessert wine to a human. _Oh, God,_ she thought numbly. _He tastes so sweet and so sexy..._

Then, she felt the feeling no more, like a slap in the face of a glass of water in her face.

Her body was frozen now, stopping her in mid time from tearing off his jeans and underwear. The feeling had disappeared, leaving her confused and terrified with what she had just done. She leaned back onto her haunches, seated on his stomach, looking at the bite marks she had just promised to never leave on Zane's neck. But it was there, vivid and darkly colored in the moon light. It glistened in the moonlight, and dripped over his clavicle and onto his pure white pillow. Her fingers gingerly touched her lips, and they came up wet with dark liquid. She could not believe what she had just done; she had just bitten her first human.

She jumped off his stomach. Zane gave a yelp, there was two small crashes, and he was alone in the bed the next second. He tried to light up the room with the lamp next to the bedside table, but his fingers swept across broken glass of the bulb, and so jumped up to switch on the ceiling light. But there was glass on the floor around him as well.

Zane's human eyes were trying to focus, but with no light to help, he had to squint and blink just to see if he can catch Wrench's sillhouette in a corner. The only light was the white light of the moon. Everything else in the room was black and dark.

"Tanya? Angel, please don't be upset with yourself," he begged, weak eye sight searching every little patch of black for his lover.

"I don't care about myself. I care about you." Zane couldn't pinprick the precise location of her voice; to him, she sounded like she could be any where, but a slight echo came from the corner near the foot of his bed. She continued. "Zane, I love you, but I can't do this anymore."

"It didn't even hurt, angel. I felt nothing but you," he said. As his feet came closer to the foot of his bed, he glimpsed a black figure dashing across the room and disappear again. He stood in the middle of the room, searching the blackness again.

"Please, Zane. Please don't tell me it didn't hurt. I have been bitten once; it does hurt Zane," Her voice floated across the room. It was as soft as a whisper, calm like a spring breeze, but it was tainted with pain and shock in her lovely voice. It was slightly true; his neck stung, but it felt good, too. "Go fix it up, Zane. I can smell it from here."

"Not until I can see you," he protested stubbornly. He found another faint echo comgin from the farthest corner of the room; he stepped towards it, and saw the shadow flit somewhere else in the dark room.

"Zane, I beg you; go get rid of the wound and I'll come out. But I can't stand even looking at it right now."

"But...Wrench..."

"Do I look like I am in a good mood all of a sudden?!" Zane flinched when her full figure suddenly flashed out, almost like she came from thin air. Her face was streaked with tears, lips sweared with blood.

"Wrench, please don't be upset. It wasn't your fault..." Zane tried his most soothing voice, but Wrench was fuming.

"I cannot believe I just did that! And don't tell me that you're not hurt, because I know you are hurt." Zane caught her hand, though she tried jerking it out of his grip. She was in no mood to do this anymore; she just had a bad urge to go somewhere to a certain someone who can help. But first she needed to tell Zane something...

"Zane, I love you more than my life. But...you were right. We are going too fast. I just wanted to feel more close to you, but I guess this isn't working." She gave him a long, passionate kiss, a sorry kiss, then dashed out of his room to change: black attire, just like a certain someone.

She ran to Zane's room one last time and kissed him goodnight, promised she would be back later, and leapt out his window.

She had only one mission that night: Find her brother, and find him _now!_

**A/N:Hey people!! thanks for the reviews!!! But im still craving more!!! more keeps me typing!!!! :-) And remember to pass on this story to other fanfic readers if u really liked this story!!!**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**


	46. Chapter 46

~Wrench's feet pounded on the wet pavement, for it was raining this evening. Her hair flapped around the wind; black whips against her face. When she had stepped out of the shop, the rain had started to pour like buckets, and the rain stung her eyes painfully as she ran.

She had never bitten a living thing before; human or animal. The dead body of Johnny Blitz was her fault, but his blood was compelling. But never once in her lifetime had she ever felt the need to drink human blood. She could never remember a time where the need was strong enough to fuzz her brain and cloud her memory. She needed help is what she wanted. She felt so weird, and plus, Stefan and Elena were something completely different from Damon. Damon understood on a different level but he still helped her out in tough situations he had been trhough himself, and he knew her better than Stefan and her father put together.

Wrench knew that Damon's favorite place was the old cemetery, so she ran that way, watching the rain fall down like curtains around her. She held her sweatshirt tighter around her chest, and the cold drops soaked into her clothes, sending a chill down to her bone.

She used her weak but slightly enhanced powers to search around her for a swollen black aura that pulsed like a heart and was as black as the devil himself. She kept running; she didn't know where to find him when she reached the old cememtery. All she needed to do was call him; if he hadn't left town already. She prayed on ehr mother's grave he hadn't left already.

She didn't know how to take in the fact that she had just bitten her first living creature. Wrench knew Stefan had done it once, and Damon had done it God knows how many times, but she was the only one of the last Salvatore family to ever bite someone who was living.

While dashing through the old willow trees with human speed instead of vampire speed, her mind went off to her dreams and memories; not once did she recall where she bit someone. Not once.

But one memory chilled her, but it was something she had carried with her for the rest of her life so far. She had joined the French side in World War One, living in the Western Front Trenches, loving the feeling of danger and weapons and nothing female to remember her horrid past. Dressed in nothing but boots and a large tunic, gun hung over her shoulder, packs dragging behind her, cigarette stuck between her teeth, hair cropped short like a guy's; completely under cover as a guy. The shelling in front of the trench kept coming, and the occasion of machine guns firing kept her sharp ears high and clear. She and her guy friends, whom were all vampires, had scored two whole flocks of geese to eat as blood nutrition, and they returned to the trenches the next day, filled with a bloddlust for battle and killing. What could she say? They were killers, after all.

Her friend Vladimir Jint had looked like her a bit; hair cut and ragged, clothes muddy and grimy from the dirt, gun over his shoulder, pulling a cigar from his pocket. He was a Russian vampire with a good heart and a love for the military.

Vladimir came over and leaned up against the wall of the trench and stared at her, watching the set line of her eyebrows furrow and straighten when she fumbled with her packs for her canteen of warm rum. She swigged the warm alcohol and placed the canteen back on her belt.

"Salvatore, can I ask something of you?" he said as she lit his fifth cigar that day with a strike of a match with her boot. The crack and hiss of the match was a tiny sound compared to the shelling going on in front of them.

"Yeah, sure, buddy," she said, puffing on her cigarette lightly.

"Have you ever heard of the old vampire saying? 'First bite equals a whole experience?'" he asked, and smiled patiently at her shake of her head and her blank look. "It means that every vampire has to have at least one bite of a human or animal when you are the undead. It's nature, if you think about it."

"Wait...this is a vampire saying?" she asked, ducking her head when a shell dropped nearby.

"Yeah; hey, you know me. I have been around for nearly a six hundred years; I've seen and heard things that I can't really foget." He was quiet for a while, gazing at her cigarette smoke thoughtfully.

She broke the silence between them. "Why did you ask?"

"Because you say that you have never tasted..."

"No; I've tasted human blood before, but I've never actually bitten one before. I may look like a guy right now, hard as iron and bitter like rotten bread, but I care about other people. Really, I do." Wrench, at the time simply Salvatore, stomped on the finished cigarette butt and sighed. "I just never have done it before."

"But it's a natural thing for a vampire, you know that, right? When I was at least four decades old, I felt like I would never pierce the neck of a human. But two hundred years later, the hunger for human blood got to me, and I killed a man for his blood essence. But I'm just saying. It could happen to you."

"It will never happen to me; I promise you," she stated with a high chin and straight back.

Back in the present time, Wrench had stopped in the middle of the clearing near the old Francher farm, searching for Damon's prescence. A cloud of weak Pwer, invisible to the human eye, surrounded the closest trees around her. She sent a mental call to Damon; she prayed that Stefan and his "little lovely love" wouldn't show up.

She knew Damon loved to take his mind, so she sat up next to the worn out chimney, curled up like a human ball, and closed her eyes, thinking.

Wrench once forbiddened herself from digging into her past, but it seemed the best way to wait for Damon, even if he didn't show up. Her memories were like black and white pictures on a wall, and she sat looking at each with a slow flick of her eyes.

Each pitcure opened an old pain in her chest, and one pitcure in particular made her flinch, but remembering the last, kind words Martyl once told her before Wrench went off to Spain and to the New World. Wrench pulled up her knees to her chest tighter, clenched her eyes shut, and laid her forehead against her folded arms.

It was her last fews days of being in Florence, and she had accepted Mary Ellen's invitation to live with her in her strict obedience school to become a painter. Tanya Mai wasn't the least bit sadden by the news. She had always wanted to live in Great Britain where the greatest kings and queens lived for thousands of years, and to become a painter in the school of a great advisor and his wife were so thrilling it sent a shudder up her spine at the thought.

She will leave tomorrow, in the morning, without her trustful maid by her side. But first, one last night in the gardens and with the horses. She hated the people living her house, but she would terribly miss her horse White and the little potted plants and lilies near the marble fountain.

Tanya Mai had snuck out of her room, hugging a shawl over her black shift, hair hanging loosely around her shoulders. Katherine and her brothers have been gone all day, but she had no interest in them anymore. All she wanted to do was go; leave and never even look back. Tanya Mai took each step around the garden and marble fountain as if it was the one thing she loved most; but her nanny was the only thing she will ever, truly love.

She took her time walking around the fields with White; White and her were bonded, and White followed her around with graceful hooves and intelligent brown eyes. The big mare was flicking her ears this way and that, listening to how Tanya Mai was going to miss her and miss all the rides they shared. Tanya Mai left after three hours with saying good-bye, and what made her heart a bit lighter was when White reared up, pawing the sky, whinnying a heart felt good-bye to her beloved master before Tanya Mai turned away.

For a few hours before heading off to the sevants quarters, Martyl had joined her, walking with her in a shawl, tears running down the old nanny's cheeks. Tanya Mai would miss the narrow shoulders and long arms with nimble fingers of her old nanny; she would miss the hard work Martyl had done to keep the house in order; Tanya Mai would miss the old, soft smile Martyl gave Tanya Mai when Tanya Mai was upset or crying; the soft voice of the old nanny made Tanya Mai wish she wasn't going. But she knew her father would only give her to good people. But Tanya Mai woul dmiss her terribly. After five hours of talking, Martyl gave Tanya Mai her wicked looking dagger, a golden neckalce with a cross on it, and with one more pat on the cheeks, she left, saying, "May God lead you through a wonderous, spiritual, and free world, my sweey angel."

But, just as everything was alright, Katherine was there.

Katherine was wearing a similar shift to Tanya Mai's, only Katherine's was white instead of black. Tanya Mai's heart jumoed with envy as the bright moon caught the silver in Katherine's eyelashes; hated Katherine for Katherine's long, blonde hair the color of true gold; bitterly despised Katherine's lapis lazuli eyes that matched the golden ring witht he saem colored stone encrusted within the gold ringlet.

Katherine had appeared near the lemon tree next to the wall that bordered the Salvatore estate. Tanya Mai was only passing when Katherine's disturbing beauty caught her eye in the shade of the lemon tree beneath the moon's glow. Tanya Mai stopped her tracks and did what Mary Ellen always told her to do when someone she didn't like was around. Tanya Mai turned her eyes ahead of her, and, with head held high and chin sticking out, she walked off with powerful steps and a graceful movement.

But Katherine, as a vampire, stepped up in front of her. "And what is the lady of the house doing out here at this time of night?" Katherine said, sarcasm and false sweetness dripping in her silvery tone.

"I could ask the same for you, Swartzchild. Are you just a bed warmer for my brothers tonight? Or did you drink another innocent victim?" Tanya Mai snapped with respect, though it was an insult in another tone.

"Be careful, Salvatore. Do not forget; I am a child of the night. I can snap your head in half and I wouldn't care." Katherine's sugary voice was now tainted with venom at the insult.

"Then do it; I will haunt you for the rest of your life," she sworn.

Suddenly, Katherine smiled. It wasn't a sweet smile; it was ironic and cold. The grin reminded Tanya Mai about how many times Katherine got what she wanted. This was one of those times, but she hadn't gotten something she had wanted.

"Oh, Tanya Mai," Katherine purred. "If only you knew what I want from you." Long, sharp teeth flashed out of Katherine's rosy lips, and she licked them like a Cheshire cat.

Then Tanya Mai knew what Katherine wanted. Katherine was advancing towards a startled and scared Tanya Mai. Tanya Mai kept her head high, but her heart began to race like crazy. Stupidly, she tried running, but was stopped again by a flash of white and gold.

The last thing Tanya Mai felt before her memory stopped was when Katherine's long fangs pierced her neck. In real time, Wrench looked up at the person standing over her when leaves crackled near her.


	47. Chapter 47

~Wrench's memories were interrupted when a black clad figure towered over her. Her eyes focused and re-focused while she stood up and shook wet debris and clumps of dirt from her pants.

"Damon...I..." She tried to start, but she couldn't continue while her older brother was staring at her with the most angry, vicious, dark eyes she had ever noticed. Damon was his usual self, dressed in black with silver boot buckles and belt buckle, but he looked so mad he could spit.

"Quite ironic that you are the one coming to me instead of the other way around," he stated not too happily.

Wrench gulped. "I know, Damon. I came to ask you something. And I really need your help with something," she said as simply as she could.

Damon laughed an icy laugh. There was no humor in the laugh. "Now why should I help you when you shunned me in front of a whole party of viewers? Did you know that the entire town is now talking about it?" he asked, crossing broad arms across his chest.

"Because I came to you." At his blank look, she sighed impatiently. "Would I ever come to you before now?" she added hopefully.

That made Damon's face soften, but it was still cold with fury. Wrench watched his eyes become confused and thoughtful, all the while shivering as a gust of wind swiped more rain into her face.

But Damon was just standing there, eyes going this way and that, trying to think, trying to figure things out. She had a point; she had never come to him before.

He stood there for another ten minutes, just standing there. Wrench gave up; her face cracked with tears and she began to walk away. But Damon's long arms encircled her, drawing her up to his warm body heat.

"Okay, okay. I guess I was being a bit too harsh," he said in her ear. His voice was now as soft as velvet, and what really surprised her was he didn't sound the least bit sarcastic of falsely sweet or over tempered like he usually was. He sounded sincere and honest and so incredibly sweet.

This was a totally new Damon Salvatore. The original one wouldn't be hugging her right now; he would be telling her to fuck off and never come near him again for the way she had acted around him lately. He would have the same slightly amused look but that same face would be icy and have a slight sneer on the lips.

But this...he felt and sounded like a real brother. A real brother that wouldn't have pushed her away so much because of Katherine or his studies...a real brother that wouldn't have told her to be an honest to God lady other than a desperate little child who only craves attention...a real brother that never told her how pretty she looked or how respectful she was whenever father was around. This was a brand new Damon. It seemed as if all of his ignorance and cockiness towards her had dissipated when he held her right then, in pouring down rain, a new leather jacket slung across his shoulders, midnight hair flapping in the wind rushing by them. His harshness was gone; his hug was warm and comforting.

"I'm so sorry, Damon," she muttered into his shoulder. "I didn't mean to..."

"Ssh. Just forget that now. Stay in the present, not the past," he murmured, voice silky and soft like velvet across polished wood.

They just held each other for a while afterwards, soaking wet, tightly embracing each other. Damon planted a kiss on her forehead, rubbing her arms soothingly.

"Damon," Wrench began. Damon waited patiently. "I...I really have to talk to you about something. Something that may sound very dumb, but I really need to know what to do." Damon gave her a strange look, but he waited a little longer while she gathered her words together and began to speak again.

* * *

~Zane lay under the heavy covers of his bed, where he still smelled the fragrance of Wrench's hair and skin on his pillows. He flicked a spare glance at her nice shirt still on the floor near the door, as well as her black bra strewn across the carpet. His neck still stung from her bite, and he still felt her kisses across his skin.

Zane didn't really know what to feel around her; of course he loved her more than his life, but also felt a bit betrayed. He felt...miffed, a little. She should have told him in the first place, before they even had a crush on one another, that she was a vampire. He really wished that she had told him everything, especially when it came to her brothers. After meeting her older brother, Damon, he knew why she didn't tell him, but it would have been nicer to tell him in the first place other than lie to him for the past few years.

Zane added more pressure to the bite on his neck with his handkerchief to stop the bleeding from spilling out onto his soft white pillows.

His bod felt strange; the bite was painful, due to Wrench having sharp fangs, but he never had the desire to kiss someone so badly. He had to admit; there were a few girls who thought of him to be hot, but they never liked the thought of him working in a mechanics shop where he got dirty and swore so much though he hardly swore in front of Wrench.

He had fallen for Wrench ever since he had laid his eyes on her for the first time.

It was only a year ago, and he had been working his simple job, brushing papers away and stacking cash into the register. It was daily work, but he didn't mind it. He actually enjoyed working with the customers, even if they were flirtatious with him or just plain grumpy.

"Hey, Zane," yelled Conner from a row of shelves he was scanning through.

"Yeah, buddy?" he answered, placing a dime and two pennies in the register.

"I think we need more job applications. Someone took our last one." Conner, Zane's best bud since fourth grade, walked up and patted his shoulder. Zane's gaze followed to where Conner was already looking. Conner was right; the application box was empty.

"I don't think we have anymore. Dan got some yesterday, but then all the gay men and trash talking assholes took them," Zane muttered with no one listening to them. They both cracked up at that whole-heartily. And that was when Conner was called away to the garages that Zane first noticed her behind the counters, waiting to be served.

He felt a slight blush spread across his cheeks. Good God, she was the most...the most..._beautiful_ thing he had ever seen. Sleek black curls, chocolate eyes, a figure to drive men crazy, face gorgeous and sensuous enough to drive a sculpture insane..._perfection._

"Hi. Can I help you?" he asked politely, watching how her movements were so graceful. Even the batting of her eyelashes was so elegant, which by the way were so thick and long. He wondered if those were her real eyelashes...

"I...um...want to turn in an application, please," she said, passing him an application with elegant cursive scrawled across. And that voice! To him, it sounded like angel's most precious golden bells, soft and rang in his head. He mentally shook himself and answered with a slightly surprised expression.

"Well, it's been a while since a female tried to apply for a job here," he said, flashing his teeth at her.

She didn't laugh, but a slight chuckle escaped her lips, but it was a small twitch of her lips. It was ironic; it sounded sad and lost. "Yeah. well, I need a job, and there is no where else around town that will let a girl apply, so...here I am." She gestured around at the people buzzing by chatting or demanding to be serviced.

"Well, okay. We need some fresh blood anyway, so let me go see if Dan wants to see today or another day," he chuckled, and excused himself to search for Dan in his office.

Back in the present, Zane was still laying on his bed, neck continually bleeding, thinking about the possibility of "soul mates," or people that were meant to be together forever. He used to believe that soul mates weren't supposed to exist, but the thought of love at first sight made him shiver with a thought of Wrench's naked form in his arms.

Zane knew that most people said that soul mates don't exist. Zach and Tanner used to say that "soul mates are just instincts telling you that this is a person you could live with in a long-term relationships but there was no possible way that two people could remain with each other forever." Facility researchers from Universities proved otherwise. But Zane was a strong believer in soul mates. And Zane had a small theory that maybe Zane and Wrench were soul bound to each other.

After nearly an hour of trying to suggest that Wrench and him might be soul bound to one another, he fell asleep, mind drifting in and out of past memories of him and Wrench together. The reunion a week ago when Wrench had practically yelled at Damon for being a prick to her. Zane was proud of her for sticking up to herself, but doing it in front of the whole building must have been so embarrassing for her. Poor girl.

His thoughts went on, making Zane physically smile whilst he dreamt about him and Wrench dancing at the party, holding her warmth so close to him.

* * *

~Wrench returned to the shop as a raven, feeling so much better and much more confident to biting someone again. Damon, as a crow followed her, and the little black bead of his eye twinkled encouragingly. It felt good to be loved by her brother again. But she knew deep in her soul that there will always be a dark corner where Stefan's love should be; he would never appreciate her at all. She would be left alone.

Arriving at the shop at around midnight, Damon and her landed on the roof. But before Damon took off, he turned to her, bowed like he would have in Italy so many years ago, and kissed the back of her hand. Wrench colored, and snorted. "You are such a ladies' man," she commented, but hugged him warmly and accepted the goodnight kiss on the cheek. She watched him take off into the sky.

But Wrench didn't go back inside. It had stopped raining, and she loved the smell of fresh rain water against the trees and grass around her. She sat down, pulled up her knees, and thought real hard.

Wrench had been thinking about how Zane would look if she so happened to change him into a vampire. Straighter and whiter teeth, bulkier muscles underneath that tight T-shirt, inhuman abilities to run fast and lift things that weigh next to a ton. The positive side to that would be that he loved her, and vice versa. They were in total love, and if she did turn him, he would be with her forever, two immortals walking the earth together, with nothing in their way. She wouldn't have to watch him grow old and die.

Yet, the negatives nearly outvoted the positives. If Zane should change, he would have to watch his friends die of old age while he was young and beautful forever. Wrench had known that he would have to feed on humans for a while, and all the while she will train him to eat animals like Stefan or processed meat in a blender like what she ate, but that could take so many years to accomplish. And another thing, he wouldn't be able to work at Dan's anymore; he would have to go from shop to shop, staying for a year or so then leave for somewhere else.

Wrench made up her mind, and flung herself back into her bedroom's window.


	48. Chapter 48

~Wrench gently knocked on Zane's door the next night. She had walked in the previous night after she bailed on him for not trusting herself with biting a living breathing thing, but now she felt confident and cool after talking to Damon about it. And besides, she owed him for ditching him and not telling him why.

Yet, even as her heart was set to letting him have his way, one way or the other, she still objected with him becoming one of them. Becoming a vampire, and immortal being. But she respected his ways and wishes, and was going to get his opinion and she was going to go through with it.

A groggy looking Zane opened the door. Zane and Wrench both had had a huge project, fix and entire semi truck's engine-it took six hours to fix with intervals of course-but even the coffee breaks were not enough to keep them alive and full of energy. The task was huge, and it had left both of them exhausted by the day's work.

"Yeah Wrench?" he said with a bit of frost edging his tone. She knew he must have been so mad with her.

Wrench breathed a sigh, and let it out thorugh her teeth. "Hey. I was thinking that maybe sex was something we should have waited on. Although we didn't do it, I was thinking that maybe I could ask something of you."

Zane's face softened. He could never stay mad at her, not with eyes so chocolate brown it was like swimming in molten chocolate and rubies. To her, his eyes were like getting lost in fog forever, never finding her way to the light. Zane gave a soft snort, and embraced her. "Anything you want, my love," he said into her rose smelling hair.

Wrench glued her lips to his, swirling her tongue between his teeth, shoving him back into his room. He was shirtless as usual when he was about to go to bed, and she ran her fingers up the plane between the row of stomach muscles. She pulled back slightly.

"I want to talk to you about something very important," she began, sitting with him on the bed.

"How important are we talking? Like sex important or lose a sock important?" he teased.

Wrench smiled with affection, and brushed loose strands of hair out of his face. He held her hand there, loving the feel of her fingers. "More important than sex. And I think you are addicted to sex just because I left you hanging behind." She looked at him. "What do you want more than anything in your entire life?"

Zane become quiet then, and she took that moment to see if he really was thinking. She saw lots of things go through his head. But she yanked her thoughts out of his head to wait patiently while he thought.

It felt like eternity before he spoke. It was only a small whisper. "I want you," he squeaked, blushing.

"Anything else but that? Don't lie, Zane. Damon taught me how to read minds." It was the truth; Damon had taught her how to read minds, even when her mind was as weak as it was.

Zane blushed brighter. "I...um..." He stuttered over his words. "I w...want you...t..." Poor Zane looked nervous, his hands were shaking slightly.

Wrench had a vague feeling what he was talking about. She finished smoothly for him. "You want me to change you into a vampire like me?" She hoped to high heavens that he would say no, that she wouldn't have to change him; that she wouldn't have to feed him human blood until he could regain his strength to feed on proccessed foods.

Unfortunately, Zane gave her a pleading look and nodded.

_Shit, fuck, damn, fuck! I don't want to do this!_ she thought to herself. Wrench's vampire heart was rocketing out of her chest, thinking about how sexy he would be immortal, but wouldn't he miss his family and the boys at the shop? "Why?" Wrench asked, trying to mask the shock and defeat on her face.

"Well, I mean it would be awesome to have unlimited knowledge in front of you, but the real reason is that I want to be with you forever. And that is because I love the hell out of you."

While Wrench wanted to smack him, she simply said cooly, "Okay, then. But I am not going to kill you. If you die before the blood passes out of your system, then you will become a vampire. But I am not killing you myself. Got it?" He nodded. "Then lay down on the bed."

Zane willingly obeyed, laying with both hands at his sides. Wrench straddled him with her knees on either side of his hips, crossing her arms to pull of her shirt and unhitch her bra. She leaned down and kissed him, placing his hands on her back. Zane pulled back a bit.

"I thought you said it was more important than sex," he said, but groaned at the nip of her canine teeth at his earlobe.

"It is; sometimes it is less painful to bite a human if the body feels pleasureful. In other words, if you want to feel me instead of my teeth, then you have to be horny. Damon told me himself." She began necking him, and Zane chuckled. Her theory was working; he was feeling more horny the more her hands travelled across his chest and rubbed the bump in his cotton low slung pants.

Zane loved the curves of her body. Wrench had a great body, he had to admit. Her hips swelled out expertly from her thick, plus size model hour-glass figure. And her buttocks were so smooth and it bulged out perfectly. Zane wondered why Wrench was always covered in black, not showing off her spectacular abs in the summer. Wrench always said the sun made her weak. Now he knew why; because of the large ring cirlcing her thigh that was her lapis lazuli ring.

Zane felt Wrench freeze when her teeth came to the spot underneath his pulse, which, by the way, was thundering like horses hooves. He waited for her to strike like a snake, but instead she retrieved a bit, and looked at him. He watched her lips pull back and saw the long sharp fangs extract and sharpen.

Zane should have been frightened of the sight, of two long fangs come out from behind her teeth, to know that she was going to feed off him. But instead, he felt so different. Something stronger than fear engulfed him, making his hand reach up and gently caress her eyes. Wrench had tears in her eyes, and she had choked on a breath. Zane frowned.

"You're upset," he said. It was not a question.

"No; I'm just thinking," she said, but the tears in her eyes were like bee stings on her precious cheeks. Zane pulled her down and kissed her tears away.

"I don't believe you," he murmured in her ear softly. His gray eyes were hard to resist.

She leaned back on her haunches and wiped away more tears. Her fangs disappeared into her gums again. "Zane, if I turn you, life will be so hard. You will have to leave a place you'll only lived in for a few years because you will not have aged an hour. And what do you think you will feel when you leave Dan and the boys? Then come back and watch them die while you stay twenty forever? I just don't want you to live thorugh that."

"Tanya, I told you that I don't care about that." He pulled her down and kissed away the stray tears that slowly rolled off her cheeks. "I told you that I want to be with you forever. I know I'm going to miss the boys and Dan and all, but I want you so badly it hurts me." She was about to open her mouth to prtest, but he put a light finger to her lips, and she stayed quiet while he finished. "I love you more than life, Tanya. You have to believe that, love."

Wrench thought for a slight moment, and Zane waited patiently, rubbing his thumb in small circles on her bare waist. Finally, Wrench sighed, nodded, then let her fangs extract again.

Zane lolled his head to the side, exposing histhroat. Wrench leaned, creating a wet swathe with her tongue on his neck, and murmured, "This is going to hurt."

"I don't care, love," he murmured back. Her breath was so close, like a whisper across his wet neck...

She struck.

Zane held back the temptation to yowl or screech in pain, but he held his tongue with his teeth. _She's got some sharp and strong teeth,_ Zane thought absently.

Strangely, the pain in Zane's neck vanished as fast as it came, and bliss and joy followed the pain. He sighed happily, running his fingers down her back. Wrench stroked his chest, right above his heart; Zane's heart skipped a beat. Zane held her while she fed her fill, feeling the veins and arteries in his system being slowly taken from him. It felt scary, but his love for her was way too strong to be over come. He knew she didn't want this, but after everything she had been through, Zane knew Wrench deserved someone by her side for the rest of her immortal life, loving everything about her and loving the way she lived life.

Wrench lifted her mouth off his neck, looking at him. Blood-his blood-dripped from her lips, dribbling slowly down her neck. She gulped some of the left over blood around her teeth, and licked her lips. Her hand moved beneath her left calf, and Zane glimpsed a silver dagger, but kept his eyes on her face. Their eyes were locked on the other, waiting for the other to say stop and everything would be over.

Zane watched as Wrench drew the dagger across her long neck, drawing fresh and dark blood at the base of her neck. A long but shallow cut. She heaved his head up to rest his lips on the cut, and at her stroke of encouragement from her hand, he began to suck the blood from her neck.

* * *

~Later, they laid with Wrench's head on his shoulder, fingers playing with his chest hairs; Zane stroked her back, eyes closed, feeling her warmth. Wrench had never felt like this for a while; her blood was energized with a strength she never knew she had. Zane's blood had filled her tummy completely, and she felt so awesome it was unbelievable.

"Do you know that I love you more than my immortal life, Zane Borington?" she said, licking his bitten neck tenderly.

Zane nuzzled her hair, kissing a curl. "And I love you more than my own mortal life, Tanya Mai Salvatore," he murmured back.

"I can't believe I did that," she said in response. She sounded quite shocked but she didn't sound scared or helpless like she was before she had bitten him.

"Well it was wonderful. Didn't hurt a bit," he said truthfully. It was every bit as thrilling as he imagined. He never knew having a vampire girlfriend would be so experiencing.

Wrench looked up at him, placed a kiss on his lips, then said, "I am going to go thank Damon for helping me. He deserves some credit for this, you know," she said against his lips, then dipped her head again to gently kiss his bitten neck.

"Alright. Will you be back?" he asked hopefully, watching Wrench hooking her bra back in place. Zane grabbed her T-shirt and pulled it over her head for her. She flushed a bright red and looked at him.

"I don't know. I might, but what would Dan say if he found us together? He might get a bad impression," she warned, eyeing his bed and the blood spot where his blood had escaped while she had fed on him.

"It's none of his business anyway." Zane shrugged. "Just go talk to Damon and we can talk later, okay?" He hugged her warmly, embracing her warmth one last time before she stood up and unhitched the window latch. She slung Damon's old leather jacket across her shoulders.

"Okay, but be good. I won't be gone long." And after Wrench blew a kiss to Zane, she leapt out the window and ran through the bustling wind outisde.


	49. Chapter 49

~Wrench felt confident; she felt amazingly free and she felt good about biting Zane now. He seemed to enjoy the time they had shared these last two weeks. She loved his presence and warmth next to her, and she gave nearly all the credit to Damon, whom she now found skulking around the old cemetery.

"Damon," she called. Damon turned around sharply, and actually smiled and hugged her when he saw her. "I guess I owe you some credit for telling what to do. I bit him, and I feel so...so..." There were no words to describe how she felt. She felt like she could take on a hundred vampires with the new Power that ran through her veins.

"Empowered?" Damon offered, grinning.

"Exactly." They hugged more.

Suddenly, something nicked Wrench's neck with a painful prick, so painful the pain shot through her back and down her legs, and she yanked back from Damon, clutching her neck in searing pain. Kneeling with pain-filled tears in her eyes, she glimpsed Damon looking around for the source of the perpetrator.

"Mother fucker! Who did that?!" she demanded, screaming at whomever just nicked her neck.

"My name is not 'Mother Fucker,'" a smooth voice behind her said. "My name is simply Shinichi. But you already knew that." Wrench looked up and saw a handsome boy stand right above her, golden eyes gleaming with joy. Somehow, Wrench recognized him as a kitsune spirit. Wrench admired his black hair that was tipped a crimson red at the end. A girl stood behind him, and she looked exactly like Shinchi, only her hair was slightly longer. They both wore simple black attire; black boots, black jeans, and black sweaters.

Damon stepped forward. "We made a deal, Shinichi. If you held me get rid of Stefan, then you will dismiss any acusations and persecutions against my sister, Tanya Mai here." He gestured to where Wrench had collected herself and faced Shinichi and his kitsune sister next to Damon, chin held high, new Power flooding every pore of her body.

"I knew you would come looking for me again, Shinichi. Misao," she added, addressing the smaller female twin behind her so called "brother". Wrnech never really believed they were truly related.

"And you, Miss Salvatore, have a lot to pay up for, especially since what happened so many years ago..." Shinichi's voice trailed off, and Misao giggled as she read his last trian of thought.

"If I escaped that small shithole of a dungeon six times, then I should get off my persecutions pretty easily," she sais stonily.

"Bitch," Misao murmured form behind her brother's shoulder, sneering at Wrench.

Damon looked confused. "Hold on a moment...what are you talking about?" he asked. Something like a satisfied look crossed Shinichi's face, and Misao laughed again. Damon suddenly caught on to what Shinichi was thinking, and growled. "I told you to get rid of Stefan, but you are not going to take my sister to the _Shi no Shi,_" he hissed dangerously.

"Oh, but my good friend Damon, she has broken a very big taboo from where me and my sister are from. She has killed one of our kind, and now must face her trial...death by staking." Shinichi's smooth, musicla voice now switched to vemon filled and menacing, like his emotions and expressions were a television set being turned to another channel.

Damon got on the defensive like he did so many weeks ago. He crouched low in front of Shinichi and Misao, hiding his sister behind his back. Shinichi's handsome formed flowed, and he took form of a kitsune fox with ten tails put together, and the kitsune snarled at Damon.

But Misao was quicker. Misao whipped around and grabbed Wrench by ther neck like a mother cat holding her kitten by the scruff, and shook Wrench until her head was throbbing like never before. But Wrench used a jolt of strong Power and knocked Misao to the side. All the while, Damon and Shinichi fought off each other, pushing and shoving. It was an all out war between kitsune twins and the Salvatore siblings.

Shinichi and Misao had advantages. Shinichi held Damon by the neck, choking him out of every last breath, while Misao nicked Wrench's upper arm with a needle of some sort. Then dropped her to the ground.

Wrench's head began to fuzz so fast it was next to impossible. Wrench was struggling against her brain to keep her eyes open and alert, but she was losing focus fast now.

"Tanya Mai!" Damon shouted, and punched Shinichi square in the jaw. He ran towards his fallen sister. "Now why on earth would she kill another one of you? She has done nothing of the sort," Damon said in defense.

It held no use. Shinichi laughed a terrible sound. And Misao grinned like a spoiled little girl who had gotten what she wanted for Christmas. "She is no use to this world anymore, Damon old buddy. She has done a terrible crime against her own kind, and now will be killed in the court of the _Shi no Shi._ You may wish to join her if you want."

Damon looked down at his beloved sister's eyes, closing so slowly and heavily. Wrench lost all consciousness. Damon felt angry. "What did you do to her?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"I just stabilizied her Power so she would be a small little helpless bitch for the rest of her time in the _Shi no Shi_ until her trial," Misao answered, gazing at the fragile, limp thing in Damon's arms that was Wrench.

Damon felt sick. "How come she never gets one night of peace without someone ruining it? She never, _ever,_ wanted this," Damon muttered into his sister's hair. It was mostly for himself, but the kitsune twins over heard him and laughed.

"She is of no need of this planet anymore, as I already mentioned," Shinichi said whole heartily, like the killing of Wrench and torturing of Damon was making him happier than ever. "Misao, please grab her and get ready to take her to the _Shi no Shi._"

All Damon could do was sit there in numbness, watching them take his only sister away to be killed for a crime she probably did not commit.

* * *

~It was like a slap in the face.

Zane's eyes flew open at the soft rapping of his window. He frowned, and sat up. He hadn't meant to fall asleep; he was only waiting for Wrench to return when he dozed off.

Something had told him to wake up. In his subconscious, something was telling him to wake up, even as he was dreaming about Wrench. A small voice in his head said so clearly it was like being spoken to in the ear.

_Wake up. I said wake up, you stupid, pathetic human!_ A small dose of Power literally kicked him awake.

Zane sat up, blinking. He scratched his head, wondering where the little call that told him to wake came from, and there was nothing outside his window tapping at the glass. His view from the window was clear of trees or shrubs, and he knew that his room was two stories up, so no one could climb up the wall easily.

Zane blinked one more time, then shrugged off the strange feeling. He laid back down to sleep.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and Zane bolted up from his bed. He looked around, looking for a broken object for piece of furniture.

Strange to say, nothing was broken. Everything was the way it should be. Nothing broken or shattered or spilled.

But a disturbing feeling crept up his back. The dark room seemed to get darker, almost like the four corners of the room were closing in on him. Zane began to sweat, feeling suddenly frightened.

He didn't know if it was a vampire trick that Wrench was pulling with him, but he was certainly falling for it.

Pushing a smile throuhg his fear, he called, "Okay, Wrench. Quit scaring the holy hell out of me," but when he didn't get an answer, he knew that it wasn't one of Wrench's vampire tricks.

"Is there someone there?" he called out, getting out of the bed.

Zane caught a shadow flit across the bathroom floor in his perioherals, and Zane immediately tensed. "Who's there?" he called out again.

He heard a soft scratching noise, as if a towel was being used after a shower. Zane's heart quickened, and his muscles were tense.

He remembered when Conner O'Donnell and Johhny Blitz was killed. Both boys had been found dead in their bathrooms, though Zane dragged Johhny's body out into a corner. Zane had found both bodies, and he vaguley wondered if the killer was in _his _bathroom now, stalking the tiled floors, waiting for him to go in.

But Zane wasn't that stupid. As silently as he could, he crept over to his dresser, located next to the bathroom door, and gently grabbed the sharpened wooden cylinder off the top of the dresser. Wrench had given him a stake just in case, and she said it could kill anyone and anything. "Only use it in case of emergencies. And please be careful as to not hurt yourself," she had said, handing him the stake.

Zane held his breath as he tip-toed to the edge of the door to his bathroom. The sounds he heard sounded like someone was getting ready after a shower, and wondered for just a split second if the intruder was casually using the bathroom. Zane slowly peeked inside the bathroom, pointed end of the stake towards the bathroom.

The noise ceased, and Zane silently crept into the room. It was dark, due to no light bulb in the lamp on the counter next to the shower, but Zane's eyes were sharp enough to not pick up anything unusual or strange within the atmosphere.

"Alone again, Borington?"

That voice was smooth and ironic, and when Zane whipped around, he glimpsed a face that he hadn't seen for nearly a month.

Tanner Hawkins.

"It is sad that your little vampire whore didn't stay behind to watch me kill you," Tanner purred, and swung a huge arm out at the golden mark on Zane's head.

Expertly, Zane ducked, and jabbed the stake at Tanner's heart, missing by two centimeters. Both boys, immortal and mortal, fought, strength against strength, though Tanner had more of an advantage than Zane. But Zane fought with a hard fist and fast reflexes.

Zane and Tanner ended up tearing up everything in the room, smashing the room to bits and pieces.

"Son of a bitch," Tanner cursed as Zane's stake swiped a shallow cut across Tanner's left breast near his heart. "You'll pay for that."

Zane did end up paying for the damage done to Tanner. Zane ended up sprawled over his torn up bed sheets, bloody near the scalp, small scratch near his right eyebrow.

"Any last words before I kill you?" Tanner hissed, throwing Zane's only protection against the far wall.

"I wouldn't kill me if I were you," Zane said, suddenly aware that Wrench had exchanged blood with him not too long ago for the blood to pass out of his system yet.

Tanner bared long fangs with an evil cackle. "A little too late, don't you think?"

Zane felt the sharp of his neck being snapped, then everything went black.


	50. Sequel Note

**A/N:Okay people! Here's the deal. I wanted to keep this story going all the way through one story, but a sudden idea came to my head. "Why not make a sequel?" So this is STILL not the end for Wrench. I will be making a sequel called "In Love With An Enemy." And this story will actually go into the Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls, and I have not read the recent book. So the sequel will be based off of what I will think happen if Wrench's side of the story was woven into it. And I also want to say that I appreciate all the readers for my first story, and that all the reviews I got are pretty shocking. I had no idea I would get up to nearly 160 reviews for only forty something chapters! And I didn't even use a beta-reader! Please keep the reviews coming. And I beg you, if you want more of Wrench's story, then try to log in everyday to see if my new sequel is up and going. I once again thank all my readers and the people whom reviewed the story. Thank you so much! And be sure to tune into the Vampire Diaries TV Show every Thursday at 8:00 pm.**

**~DamonSalvatoreLuver**


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